EU: Ireland to formally appeal against Apple ruling

The European Commission’s ruling that Apple should pay Ireland €13 billion in back taxes is set to be formally disputed by the Irish government.

Finance minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday that Dublin would challenge the judgment on Wednesday.

In August, competition officials in Brussels concluded that the so-called sweetheart tax deals Apple received from Ireland constituted illegal state aid. The commission’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said at the time: “Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies—this is illegal under EU state aid rules.”

Noonan, underlying the Irish government’s earlier position on the Apple judgment, said:

“The government fundamentally disagrees with the European Commission’s analysis and the decision left the government no choice but to take an appeal to the European courts…

So in that light, given that the case is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, I am constrained by what I can say in making any further comment.”

Dublin wants to protect what Noonan has described as “the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation.”

Full Content: ARS Technica UK

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