EU Commission is taking Ireland to court

The EU Commission insists that Ireland is obliged to recover 13 billion euros in unpaid taxes from the US Company Apple. The Authority will refer the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), announced the Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. Ireland has so far refused to reclaim the aid classified as inadmissible by the EU Commission and has already legally challenged the Commission´s decision in June 2016.

At that time, Brussels authorities had decided that Apple must pay 13 billion euros of taxes and interest for operations between 2003 and 2014, as the tax agreement between Ireland and Apple has been considered inadmissible by the EU Commission. Ireland refutes these claims, saying that the rates had been available to all companies and the agreement did not violate Irish or European Law. Ireland's finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper already in August: "We are not the global tax collector for everybody else”. He added that the EU's 13 billion tax bill is “unjustified”.

The Irish Department of Finance called yesterday´s move by the EU Commission "disappointing" and "extremely regrettable". However, Irish officials and experts have already worked hard to ensure that the state can meet its obligations "as quickly as possible" and are in constant contact with the European Commission and Apple.

Commissioner Verstager pointed out, that the recovery of the taxes is quite complex, but Member States of the EU should make visible efforts to ensure completion. In the case of Ireland, there was not even a partial claim on the taxes, according to Verstager.