Apple Denies Getting Unfair State Aid in Ireland

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Apple pays all taxes due in Ireland and doesn’t get an unfair advantage compared with other companies there, Cathy Kearney, vice president of Apple’s European operations in Cork, Ireland, has told a panel of EU lawmakers, reports Bloomberg.

“We feel that we’ve paid every cent of tax that is due in Ireland,” Kearney said at the European Parliament in Brussels. “We don’t feel that there has been state aid involved and I suppose we look forward to that outcome happening at the end of the day and being vindicated in that way. I would say that the Irish government also agrees with that view.”

It isn’t just Apple: Other tech companies’ tax affairs are also in the spotlight of EU lawmakers. For example, Amazon’s arrangements in Luxembourg are said to be under investigation, and the EU authority has already ordered the Netherlands and Luxembourg to recover up to $33.4 million in back taxes from Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is also probing McDonald’s deals in Luxembourg, and Bloomberg says she may add Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s $184 million tax deal with the U.K. to her growing list of investigations.

The EU investigation into Apple started in 2014, following claims that the company had arrangements with Ireland to calculate an unusually low tax bill. A Bloomberg analysis reveals that Apple could pay more than $8 billion in back taxes if the EU Commission finds that the company received illegal state aid.

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