Brussels, 06/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 5 January, the Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, announced that he expected the decision of the competition services of the European Commission on the Apple case not to be available until after the general elections in his country.
In June 2014, the Commission opened a number of investigations into potential State aid granted by means of tax rulings to Apple in Ireland, Fiat in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands. These were followed by an investigation into a tax ruling granted to Amazon in Luxembourg. To date, the Commission has already announced that it finds that the cases of Starbucks and Fiat constitute illegal State aid.
In November of last year, the Commission asked Dublin for new information on the Apple case (see EUROPE 11436). “It seems to me that the date for a decision has been put back again, it looks like it will be post-election rather than pre-election”, Noonan said. The elections could be held at the end of February. According to a Financial Times article of December of last year, the Commission's next decision may concern the Belgian system of advance tax decisions concerning surplus profit. An in-depth investigation was opened in February of last year (see EUROPE 11245). (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)