In Bratislava on Friday 9 September, the Austrian finance minister Hans Jörg Schelling said that his country was planning to try and see whether it should be entitled to a share of the €13 billion in unpaid tax that Apple has to pay to Ireland. Italy may do the same, although France denies being interested.
On 30 August, the European Commission concluded that Apple had benefited from illegal state aid, through an Irish tax ruling negotiated with the Irish authorities (see EUROPE 11612). Ireland, which has been ordered to recover the sum, has since decided to bring an appeal against the decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
When it announced its conclusions of the Apple investigation, the Commission said that other countries could also require the American IT giant to pay it more tax on profits over the same period, under their own national tax rules. This would, therefore, reduce the amount to be recovered by Ireland. Apple organises its sales activities in Europe in such a way that it registered all sales, and the related profits, directly in Ireland. In light of the information revealed by the Commission's investigation, other countries may take the view that Apple's commercial risks, sales and other activities should have been registered on their territories.
Schelling said that Italy and France were also interested in the Apple case. However, in Bratislava, French economy and finance minister Michel Sapin denied having designs on the €13 billion owed by Apple. "Our policy is for tax to be paid according to the profits that have been made on French territory. I don't know if, in the case of Apple, much money was earned on the back of France. France is not claiming anything", he told a few journalists at the end of the informal ministers' meeting. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)