EU seeks highest court support in $14 billion Apple tax dispute. On Tuesday, EU competition officials asked the bloc’s highest Court to overturn a lower tribunal and force Apple (AAPL.O) to pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in Irish back taxes.
The lawsuit, which might affect company tax bills, is the most prominent of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s battle against multinationals’ sweetheart deals with EU governments.
“Its outcome will determine whether member states may continue to grant multinational substantial tax breaks in return for jobs and investments,” Commission lawyer Paul-John Loewenthal told the CJEU.
In 2016, the European Commission found that two Irish tax judgments had unjustly lowered Apple’s tax burden to 0.005%.
The General Court ruled 2020 that regulators failed to prove Apple had an unfair advantage.
Loewenthal told Court of Justice judges the verdict was “legally flawed” and should be overturned.
Apple denied the Commission’s claims, saying it paid its fair share of taxes in the right countries.
“The profits we are talking about – the profits the Commission said should be attributed to these branches in Ireland – those profits were in fact subject to the U.S. tax regime,” Daniel Beard told the Court.
“Apple built up reserves for the payment of those U.S. taxes and is paying around 20 billion euros in U.S. tax on those very same profits that the Commission says should have been taxed by Ireland,” he said. Apple paid Irish tax obligations.
The EU competition enforcer has lost court cases to Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis (STLAM.MI), Amazon (AMZN.O), and Starbucks (SBUX.O). Still, the CJEU sided with it in a Belgian tax break case against a group of multinationals in September. C-465/20 P Commission v Ireland and Others is the Tuesday case.
A final Court of Justice judgment is expected in the following months.
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