EU Finance Ministers Ready to Take Apple’s Tax Money

Germany’s < em>DW reports (via Patently Apple) that following the EU Commission’s ruling instructing Apple to pay Ireland CAD$18.9 billion (plus interest) in back taxes, European finance ministers are gearing up to take a bite out of Apple’s tax revenue.

The first to show interest in Apple’s tax money was Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who warned Apple on Saturday after a meeting with his EU counterparts to “get ready” to pay up, according to the German report.

The topic of the EU finance ministers’ meeting was the harmonization of tax rules for foreign firms. Now that Dijsselbloem considers international tax loopholes “a thing of the past”, he says corporations “have an obligation to pay taxes in a fair way.”

His remark was underpinned by British finance minister Philip Hammond, who said that the EU has “to make sure that international corporations pay the right tax at the right place,” and “we are going to make sure it happens.”

As noted by DW, other countries such as Austria, Italy and France are also watching the case closely. Austria’s Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said, “Other EU countries [… are] expressing interest in a possible payout. If it’s legally accurate, you can be sure that, as minister of finance, I will take it. We Austrians are looking at it intensively.”