Apple may owe $8bn in back taxes after European commission ruling

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Apple may owe $8bn in back taxes after European commission ruling

The commission’s crackdown on multinational corporations extended to tech
giant in investigation that revealed potentially illegal use of Ireland tax shelters

Sam Thielman in New York
Friday 15 January 2016 18.12 GMT

Apple may owe $8bn in back taxes from its use of potentially illegal tax shelters in Ireland.

The European commission’s recent ruling against tax breaks for multinational corporations in Belgium strongly suggests that the tech behemoth could be subject to a hefty bill when the open investigation against its activities in Ireland concludes.

The commission has been cracking down on US companies trying to negotiate sweetheart deals with individual EU member nations for the last several years. Starbucks’s operations in the Netherlands and Amazon and McDonald’s in Luxembourg have all been subject to similar investigations.

The commission found that Starbucks owed Dutch authorities upwards of $22m, and a ruling from Belgium this week determined that 35 companies across the EU owe the equivalent of $760m in back taxes.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/15/apple-european-commission-ruling-back-taxes-ireland

[packman]

1. Love it when governments start acting like they have some sense

Even though the US may not see any of this back taxes (apparently going to the country doing the crack-downs) , it is still satisfying Now, get after those tropical island tax shelters. .

[Human101948]

2. Yes, Reagan invaded the wrong Caribbean stronghold...

Invading the Cayman Islands would have prevented much more economic terrorism.