Updated 2 p.m.: Apple published a response under
form of open letter on its website, see details
below
It has been several months since theaccords
Apple tax disputes with the Irish governmentweresous
the fire of an investigation by the European commission. This comes to
the moment to render its judgment and this is the worst case envisaged for
Apple.
Judging that the advantage granted by the Irish government to Apple in
term of tax rate was anti-competitive, the apple firm must
reimburse the uncollected amounts which amount to 16 billion
euros!
The investigation began in June 2014 and the conclusions have just been
communicated. THEreport in English is
available here.
The Competition CommissionerMargrethe Vestagernoted
that no member of the European Union can grant taxation
specific to certain companies, this being illegal. However, according to the investigation,
Ireland would have allowed Appleto pay only a tiny part of its
tax profits, much less than what others pay
businesses.
The figures suggest a tax of up to 1% of European profits in
2003, which decreases to 0.005% in 2014.
But the specific agreements granted by the Irish government
go back much further, since they would have started as early as
1991. The commission is for its part entitled to impose the
recovery of amounts not collected over a period of 10 yearseither from
2003 to 2014, with interest. This is what gives thissomme
record 13 billion euros. It is particularly high,
until then, the record in the field claimed by Europe had amounted to
1.29 billion.
The document goes into great detail about what is considered a benefit
not legal in Europe, with a description of the financial flows implemented.
These go through the use of two Irish companies to collect
European recipes: “Apple Sales International” and “Apple
Operations Europe".
Among the elements shared by the commission, we note that if the sum says
be claimed in the first place by Ireland, it is possible in light of the
elements revealed by the survey, that countries estimate that part of the tax
is due to them for revenues and activities carried out in this same country. in
occurrence, it would become possible for European countries to recover a
part of the tax not paid during the ten years concerned.
Recently, the American government suggested that it
would take a very dim view of such a condemnation. For his part, the minister
of Irish Finance immediately indicated that it disagreed with this
decision and will appeal.
We should talk about this decision again in the days and weeks
come !
Updated 2 p.m.: Apple has published a response to
the European injunction in the form of an open letter publisheddirectly on its website
Internet.
This traces the history of Apple and its establishment in Ireland,
evokes the 6,000 direct jobs and the 1.5 million indirect jobs in Europe. In this
which concerns the merits of the case, Apple indicates "The European Commission
undertook to rewrite the history of Apple in Europe, ignoring in the process the
Irish tax legislation and thereby disrupting the tax system
international" et "We now find ourselves in the situation
unprecedented to have to retroactively pay additional taxes to a
government which declares that we owe it nothing more than what we
have already paid".
The line of defense that emerges from the end of the letter seems to indicate
that Apple is willing to comply with new rules but is opposed to
retroactivity of these.
Unsurprisingly, Apple indicates that it is appealing the decision of the
commission : "Ireland itself has indicated that it intends to
appeal the Commission's decision, and we will do the same. Apple is
convinced that this decision will be overturned".
i-nfo.fr - Official iPhon.fr app
By : Keleops AG
founder of the site. Computer engineer and Internet specialist where he has held various positions of responsibility, Laurent has been passionate about mobility since the arrival of "PDAs" in the 90s. Journalist for 4 years for the magazine Team Palmtops (Posse Presse) and author of several books on the iPad published by Pearson.
