Apple does not want to pay 13 billion euros to Ireland for its tax arrears

Apple He denounced the decision of the European Union to oblige him to return to Ireland 13 000 million euros (14 300 million dollars) of undue fiscal benefits, a sanction that, according to the technology giant, "defies common sense".

"Apple has designed and developed the iPhone in Ireland? The iPad or the iPod? No! The answer is written on each product:"Designed by Apple California& # 39; "said Daniel Beard, company representative before the European Union Court in Luxembourg.

"Apple pays its taxes and understands the importance of doing so, we think Apple is the biggest contributor in the world," he added in defense of the group's arguments against the Commission's decision. European.

EU demand "challenges reality and common sense," said Beard. "The decision of the Commission must be annulled," he added.

The European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, announced this request for reimbursement on August 30, 2016, after two years of investigation, a decision "politic" of the employer of the company Cupertino (West of United States). Tim Cook

According to the survey, Apple grouped in Ireland between 2003 and 2014, all obtained in Europe (as well as in Africa, the Middle East and India) because in this country I had a preferential tax treatment.

The group would have avoided paying most of the taxes it should have paid during this period, about 13,000 million euroswhich constitutes for Brussels an illegal "state aid".

European apple

These revenues went to a "headquarters" located outside the country, a "ghost" that Dublin refused to consider. Nothing illegal in Irish law.

As these billions of non-taxable benefits in Ireland have not been repatriated to the United States, Apple has not had to pay these taxes for several years.

However, the company believes that the badysis of the case by Brussels involves serious errors.

"The European Commission has attempted to rewrite the story of Apple in Europe, ignore Irish tax laws and, in so doing, disrupt the international tax system, "Cook said in 2016.

The group says that, according to international rules, it has to pay most of its taxes in the United States, where it invests in research and development and therefore creates wealth, not the one where it sells.

Apple also notes that since the tax reform launched at the end of 2017 by Donald Trump, the group has repatriated to the United States the benefits accumulated over the years abroad, by committing to pay the corresponding taxes.

The company enjoys a tax rate of less than 35% that was in force in the United States, but must also deal with a tax debt of about $ 37 billion Since a few years.

The representatives of Ireland badured Tuesday for their part that the Commission had "fundamentally" wrong and that it would have "ignored the Irish law".

Clear accounts

Apple claims to have reported this amount in its accounts every year, knowing that it should be paid someday.

Ireland supports the company created by Steve Jobs in his fight. Dublin has also appealed the Commission's decision and refuses to be presented as a tax haven.

"We will present a very solid case," promised Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

The two days of views take place in a tense trading environment between the European Union and the United States, where Donald Trump's president blames the Europeans for their offensive against the country's tech giants.

Pending the court's decision, Apple has blocked the amount claimed on an account. The group, which has been present in Ireland since the 1980s, employs around 6,000 people in Cork, the country's second largest city.