Not your usual corporate banter !
Law.com reports
“I suppose when you’re the head of a company with a market cap that’s bigger than the GDP of Sweden, you don’t need to worry about being diplomatic. So, when Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked yesterday about his company’s record-breaking €13 billion ($14.5 billion) back tax bill, instead of delivering the standard corporate PR soundbites denying wrongdoing, he simply dismissed it as “total political crap.”
In a colorful interview with the Irish Independent, Cook went on to claim that Ireland was being “picked on” in a political move to establish more uniform tax rates across Europe, and rejected EU claims that the company paid just 0.005 percent tax in Ireland in 2014. “They just picked a number from I don’t know where…we actually paid $400 million. We believe that makes us the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year,” he said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has been investigating the U.S. tech giant’s tax affairs since mid-2013 and this week ruled that its Irish tax arrangements constitute illegal state aid. Ireland’s finance minister Michael Noonan was somewhat more restrained in his response than Cook, saying in a statement that he “disagree[s] profoundly” with the ruling. “Our tax system is founded on the strict application of the law without exception,” he added.
The EU has investigated a number of major U.S. corporations as part of a crackdown on tax avoidance. It previously directed the Netherlands and Luxemburg to recover around $30 million each in back taxes from Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, respectively, while Amazon and McDonald’s are the subject of ongoing investigations. It has led to heightening tensions between the U.S. and the EU. The American government last week accused Brussels of becoming a “supranational tax authority” and said it would consider retaliating if the EU continued chasing U.S.-based corporations for unpaid taxes. Earlier this year, the Senate finance committee urged the U.S. Treasury to impose a double tax rate on European corporations if Apple is ordered to pay back-taxes in Ireland.
Apple has hired magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to help it deal with the “unacceptable” situation. Freshfields previously advised Apple on its unsuccessful design infringement claim against Samsung in 2012 over similarities in design between its iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy tablet.
