European commission to investigate the sweetheart tax agreement that went for 16 years
Apple might cost 10 million Euros due to the illegal state help that came from tax agreement done by Irish government.
The EC or known as European commission ran its investigation, together with the competition official, and emphasized that recipient of any illegal funding will be held liable.
The inquiry arises when European governments strictly disapproves tax deals from US IT firms to divert earnings to inexpensive-tax countries. Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google are some of them that are under the microscope.
According to Almunia, the initial inquiry shows that agreements done between the Irish government and Apple is constitute state assistance. However, the commission is uncertain on the relation of the state assistance and the internal market. He even added that the agreement that replaced it last 2007 also had issues on the regulations.
Apple's headquarters are located in Knocknaheeny, its in suburb area of Cork where is known as the second largest employer. According to the famous brand, it settles all its taxes.
The Irish government did not allow any suggestions on a special agreement with Apple, which has been running its business in the country for more than two decades. It is the organization's co-found Steve Jobs set aside a part of the economic rights to use the brand's intellectual property and transfer to a new Irish Apple group.
About two-thirds of the brand's international revenue last 2011 came from offices in Cork.
The inquiry that started previous year, is going through agreements done by the Irish government with the brand when it was still new in the industry and from the same time that iPhone was introduced.
According to the brand's spokesperson, "The success in Europe and other parts of the world is from hard work and innovation by our staff, not from any sort of special deals with the government. The company has not been a recipient of special treatment from Irish government since then. We have been paying similar tax structure as the rest of the companies have in Ireland."
