Brussels, 29/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 September, the Commission decided to clarify the information published the same day in the Financial Times regarding the in-depth investigation, which was opened in June and is still current, into the decisions taken by Ireland on the corporation tax to be paid by Apple (EUROPE 11098).
As reported by the FT, Antoine Colombani, the spokesperson to the competition commissioner, confirmed that the Commission will this Tuesday publish on its website a non-confidential version of the June decision to open an in-depth investigation into some of the fiscal decisions taken by Ireland regarding Apple, ahead of publication in the Official Journal (OJ) in a few weeks' time. Publication in the OJ will open the four-week period during which interested third parties may submit their comments to the Commission, which will then examine them. Colombani took pains to stress that the document which will be published will explain why the Commission had concerns that Apple may have benefited from an undue competitive advantage. He also made clear that no fine was provided for by the state aid procedure, even though the FT had announced a fine running to several billion euro for the American giant. Announcing the imminent publication of the Commission's reasoning, the FT had earlier that day reported comments by Luca Maestri, Financial Director of Apple, who told the British daily that there had been no special deal for Apple, at least nothing that would be construed as state aid. The FT went on to say that the company had paid no tax between 1980 and 1991, when a change in the law prompted it to negotiate a deal with Ireland. Under this agreement, and up until 2007, the company is reported to have been able to benefit from a specific regime, which was subsequently re-negotiated by request of the Irish authorities.
The Irish government also reacted on Monday, stating that it was simply a stage in the procedure and repeated that it was confident that no infringement of EU state aid rules had been committed. For its part, Taxand, an international organisation of specialist tax advisers to multinational businesses, stated that the EU's investigations should focus on whether countries, not companies, are breaching state aid rules. “It's an injustice that multinationals face (…) damage to their reputation for operating within a country's rules and laws”, said Fréderic Donnedieu, President of Taxand, who went on to criticise the fact that information was circulating via the press rather than through official channels.
The Commission is currently focusing on whether certain so-called “tax ruling” decisions taken by Ireland concerning Apple, the Netherlands regarding Starbucks and Luxembourg for Fiat Finance and Trade are compatible with EU rules. The non-confidential version of the decision for Luxembourg will also be published this Tuesday on the Commission's website and the decision on Starbucks and the Netherlands will follow. (EL)