CEO Tim Cook says he’s “confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.“
New York Times editorial, Apple, Congress and the Missing Taxes:
Apple
and the United States are crying foul over the ruling in Europe that
Apple received illegal tax breaks from Ireland and must hand over 13
billion euros ($14.5 billion), a record tax penalty in Europe. But Apple
and the United States have only themselves to blame for the situation.More on the EU Apple $145 billion tax dispute
*Following up on Tax Poffessor's previous coverage of the EU-Apple tax dispute*The Implications Of Apple's $14.5 Billion EU Tax Bill
The Hill op-ed: U.S. Treasury Publishes White Paper in Support of Tax Avoiders, by Edward Kleinbard (USC):
The U.S. Treasury Department has just published a tax policy white paper which amounts to a lawyer’s brief defending the brazen abuses of tax administrative processes clandestinely orchestrated by U.S. firms in cahoots with a handful of European countries. It’s August, and nearly the end of the Administration’s term to boot, so in the ordinary course even tax professionals could be forgiven for ignoring the white paper. But this is not simply another tedious tax policy exercise.
Simply put, “business friendly” jurisdictions (like Luxembourg) in substance offered through secret private deals to provide U.S. multinationals with tax shields in the form of their laws and European tax treaties, in return for what in substance were modest fees from the multinationals. All of this was revealed principally by the LuxLeaks scandal. I have worked in the area for 30 years, and I was awestruck by the sleaziness of the operations that came to light.
EU Orders Apple To Repay $14.5 Billion In Irish Tax Breaks
European Commission Press Release
- Apple Press Release
- BBC News
- Bloomberg
- Bloomberg View
- New York Times
- Reuters
- Wall Street Journal
- Wall Street Journal
Nota Bene: Tax wars are looming and the US has fired a shot across the EU's bows