MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - The EU antitrust watchdog announced on Tuesday that the government of Ireland provided Apple with an unfair tax advantage in order to boost employment, and is launching an official investigation, which may result in multibillion paybacks, as reported by USA Today.
In a letter sent to the Irish government this June, the European Commission claimed that during the period between 1991 and 2007 the government of Ireland granted Apple several tax breaks in order to provide the tech corporation with a financial advantage. Apple in return employed more Irish workers at its facilities in Cork.EU finance officials suspect these tax deals are incompatible with internal market regulations. In particular, the EU says, deals between Apple and Ireland do not comply with the principles of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Apple may now be required to repay all the illicit profit, gained through the Dublin tax breaks. The compensatory taxation bills may be “multibillion”, says Bridgwater Mercury.
Both Apple and the Irish authorities deny the illegality of their tax arrangements. Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said: "there's never been any special deal, there's never been anything that would be construed as state aid", as quoted by the Financial Times.
The Irish Department of Finance has officially stated that the European Commission “has not formally decided that there is state aid”.
Apple employs 3.800 people in Cork, Ireland, as claimed on the tech giant’s official website, while the total number of Apple employees in Europe is 16.000.
