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Finance minister says 13 billion bill left government with no choice but to appeal.
Ireland this week launched its bid to overturn the European Commission’s order for it to claw back €13 billion in unpaid taxes from Apple.
Addressing the EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Ireland’s minister of finance Michael Noonan reiterated that his government fundamentally disagrees with the Commission with regard to Apple.
In late August, the EC announced the results of an investigation launched in June 2014 into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland. The investigation concluded that the tax arrangements of two Apple subsidiaries incorporated in Ireland artificially lowered the iPhone maker’s taxable earnings, violating EU state aid rules.
"The government fundamentally disagrees with the European Commission’s analysis and the decision left the government no choice but to take an appeal to the European Courts," Noonan said in his speech, which was published on the Finance Ministry’s Website.
Noonan said the appeal would be lodged on Wednesday.
"Given that the case is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, I am constrained by what I can say in making any further comment," he added.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has defended his company’s track record in Ireland, pointing out that it was a bold decision by late Apple founder Steve Jobs to invest in the country in the first place, and that the EC’s actions could jeopardise job creation in Europe.
"We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid," Cook said, in an open letter in August.
