Update: Paying the Piper
EU orders Apple to pay up to $14.5-billion tax to Ireland
Analysts said the move could add a compelling new dimension to the tax reform debate surrounding the treatment of more than $2.1 trillion in U.S. corporate profits held offshore to avoid U.S. taxes.
For Apple, whose earnings of $18-billion last year were the biggest ever reported by a corporation, finding several billion dollars should not be an insurmountable problem. The €13-billion represents about 6 per cent of the firm’s cash pile.
Apple employs 5,500, or about a quarter of its Europe-based staff, in the Irish city of Cork, where it is the largest private sector employer. It has said it paid Ireland’s 12.5 per cent rate on all the income that it generates in the country.
Of course Ireland is not interested in upsetting the apple cart. Pun intended.
And from another article in The Melbourne Age
All profits from Apple's European sales had been recorded by Apple Sales International in Ireland, which paid almost no tax under a sweetheart deal with the Irish state.
Apple had been given illegal tax benefits by Ireland, where the company recorded all its profits from sales across Europe.
This allowed the tech giant to pay an effective tax rate of just 0.005 per cent in 2014.
"Other countries in the EU or elsewhere can look at our investigation and can use our data," she said. "If they conclude Apple should have recorded its sales in those countries they could require Apple to pay more tax in that country – that would reduce the amount paid to Ireland."