Ireland has revealed that it has come to an agreement regarding when Apple will start paying the enormous 13 billion euros ($15.4 billion) tax bill that it was ordered to more than one year ago by the European Commission.
The record sum will be paid in the first quarter of 2018, and will be held in escrow until the matter has been sorted.
“We have now reached agreement with Apple in relation to the principles and operation of the escrow fund,” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters before a meeting with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager today. “We expect the money will begin to be transmitted into the account from Apple across the first quarter of next year.”
We reported on the 2018 transfer date last week, when John Hogan, Ireland’s assistant secretary at the Department of Finance, acknowledged that the process of collecting funds had taken longer than originally anticipated.
Tax under attack
The process of collecting the funds from Apple has been a contentious one, with Ireland and Apple seemingly teamed up in opposition to the European Union. The EU ordered Apple to pay the enormous tax bill back in August 2016. It claimed that Apple illegally routed its profits through Ireland, and paid the equivalent of as little as 0.005 percent on all European profits in 2014.
For much of this year, however, Apple and Ireland have continued to argue against it. As a result of Ireland dragging its feet, the European Commission took the country to court for failing to collect the money as owed.
The issued has provoked strong reactions on both sides: with some people drawing attention to multinationals’ use (and arguable abuse) of complex tax laws to get away with paying minimal taxes, while others suggest that Apple is only doing what any other company or individual would do in this situation. The U.K.’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affair Boris Johnson has argued that, while most people want Apple to pay more tax, the company is being unfairly penalized by the “crop-haired … Left-wing” Vestager.
Apple’s tax practices recently found their way into the news again due to the so-called “Paradise Papers” leak, which shows how Apple has continued to make use of complex tax structures, even after Ireland changed some of its laws regarding this. Apple has responded by reminding people that it is the world’s largest tax payer, and saying that it pays every cent that it owes.
Over the weekend, French activists “occupied” a Paris Apple Store to try and shame Apple into paying its taxes. Roughly 100 members of the anti-globalisation group Attac visited the store and stayed for “several hours”.
The group said that it wants to, “denounce the practices of Apple in good spirits,” and for Apple to act in a way that is more transparent. The protesters left the store after being promised a meeting with management within 15 days.
Where do you stand on the Apple taxation debate? Is Apple doing right by its share holders by mimimizing how much it pays unnecessarily in tax? Or is it contradicting Tim Cook’s description of Apple as a “force for good” in the world? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: WSJ
