Brussels, 04/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is reported to have asked the Netherlands for information on the tax arrangements entered into with the multinationals Microsoft, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Kraft Foods, according to the Dutch newspaper Trouw of Wednesday 4 November.
Requesting information on specific cases does not necessarily mean that formal investigations are to be opened and the Commission, which has declined to comment on the reports, simply said that it had requested about 300 individual tax rulings in total from 23 member states. The Commission went on to state that the only two formal investigations into specific cases concerned Apple in Ireland and Amazon in Luxembourg. Two weeks ago, the Commission found that the tax arrangements entered into between Luxembourg and Fiat Finance and Trade and the Netherlands and Starbucks constituted illegal state aid and ordered the two companies to pay back between €20 and €30 million each. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)