Sheer amount of data involved delaying EU ruling on Apple's Irish tax deals, Commissioner says
There's no way of telling when the European Commission will conclude its investigation into Apple's Irish tax deals, simply because the huge amount of data involved, the Commission's competition head said on Monday.
"The first priority is the quality of the case work... And therefore it is very difficult to make predictions as to when the case will be ready for a decision," Margrethe Vestager told a European Parliament hearing, according to Reuters.
The investigation has already been in progress for two years. Vestager noted that having recently asked the Irish government for more information, new questions were raised that demanded answers from both Ireland and Apple.
Apple is accused of exploiting Irish loopholes to avoid paying normal taxes on international revenue, in exchange for keeping jobs in the country. In addition to funneling money through Ireland, Apple's European operations are based there, along with its only self-owned factory. A datacenter is planned, but awaiting approval.
Under European Union regulations, such tax arrangements could constitute illegal state aid if they're not extended to every business. The EU has been cracking down on other governments and multinational corporations for this reason, and could potentially ask Ireland to collect billions in back taxes from Apple.
The latter insists that it has "paid every cent of tax" it owes, but has also promised that it is "committed to Ireland" regardless of how the Commission rules.
"The first priority is the quality of the case work... And therefore it is very difficult to make predictions as to when the case will be ready for a decision," Margrethe Vestager told a European Parliament hearing, according to Reuters.
The investigation has already been in progress for two years. Vestager noted that having recently asked the Irish government for more information, new questions were raised that demanded answers from both Ireland and Apple.
Apple is accused of exploiting Irish loopholes to avoid paying normal taxes on international revenue, in exchange for keeping jobs in the country. In addition to funneling money through Ireland, Apple's European operations are based there, along with its only self-owned factory. A datacenter is planned, but awaiting approval.
Under European Union regulations, such tax arrangements could constitute illegal state aid if they're not extended to every business. The EU has been cracking down on other governments and multinational corporations for this reason, and could potentially ask Ireland to collect billions in back taxes from Apple.
The latter insists that it has "paid every cent of tax" it owes, but has also promised that it is "committed to Ireland" regardless of how the Commission rules.
Comments
Flat Tax, Fair Tax, uncomplicated tax - something has to be done and quick
Of course Apple got a tax break and also agree to keep jobs in Ireland, it is called a win/win. The EU is unhappy they did not get their cut. The EU has to be careful since the UK is talking about pulling out of the EU do to all the open boards issue with the crazies living in most of the EU. If the UK leaves Ireland will not be far behind.
The thing is most people have no idea that Apple/Ireland deal dates back to the late 80's and predates the EU authority in the mater. The reason they trying to go through all data is they trying to find if their were new deals with after the EU came into existence.
Google, Amazon and Facebook do not predate the EU so they going to pay. Apple is going to be a more complicated issue for the EU to deal with.
Since that decision cannot stay at the top of the news, overwhelming amounts of data is being pushed to the top of the news.
I just want the EU to be transparent about it came to whatever decision is eventually made.
What? How can late 80's predates EU authority in the matter?
Also your comment about employment law must be sarcastic as it is totally incorrect.
Unless you are management, in which case you can work as much as you want, but still get paid only 35 hours.
If you wanted to get two jobs to make more money, you can't. Simple as that.
And that's why a third of the economy is under-the-table- well, that, and taxes.
That's not to say for some jobs the 35 hour limit is strictly enforced. If you have a good thing as an employee why would you want to give it up. This does mean that the employment rate is higher as the cost of employing people is greater.
Oh, yes, there are, the taxes not paid because the illegal aid to the companies
And not taking into account that French work laws have nothing to do with EU employment laws
Yes, it says that some people actually read what the commission documents say, from the 2014 document linked here http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/cases/253200/253200_1582634_87_2.pdf
And what the article 108.2 says?
But perhaps you know more about what the case is that the EU themselves, and perhaps when they say that the case is about alleged illegal aids from a member state to a company they are not actually talking about alleged ilegal aids. Perhaps they have to ask you.
When you can put a source saying that it is not alleged illegal aid then you can talk about sarcasm or other things. But as it is clear that you're just talking nonsense you won't give us anything rational apart of your ignorant, fanatic and hatred stupidities.
And yes, it says something, it says that you're just wasting out time with your nonsense.
The only stupid, repetitive and unchanging perspective is what you write.
People should acruelly look at what this case is about and what laws may have been broken.
As any potential liability from Apple ranges from 100 million euros to 9 billion you might expect there to be a long time for any investigation as I'm sure Apples tax deals are not one pagers and also how taxable amounts are determined will be a mission in itself. Assuming Apple are found to have received illegal state aid of course.