Irish Government to Appeal against EU Commission’s Apple Tax Ruling: Reuters

After several days of debate, the Irish cabinet has agreed to join Apple and appeal against the EU Commission’s ruling handed down this Tuesday instructing Ireland to recoup CAD$18.9 billion in back taxes from the iPhone maker.

The Reuters report might come as a relief for Apple, as previously Finance Minister Michael Noonan wasn’t able to convince the cabinet to support his position of fighting the ruling, so further, emergency meetings were needed with the presence of Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, as reported earlier by the Financial Times.

Apple’s position was obvious from the start: It will appeal against the ruling, which CEO Tim Cook described as “political crap”, in an effort to find justice in the European courts. The reasons for Ireland filing an appeal are obviously different. For Fine Gael, the main Irish coalition party, Ireland’s decades-old low corporate tax policy, which has attracted multinational corporations such as Apple, is at stake. The company has created jobs in the country.

It is worth adding that Cook warned on Thursday that if the Dublin government didn’t join it in appealing, the lack of “cooperation” would send the wrong message to business in a country whose economic model depends in part on companies such as his, says Reuters.