EU Set to Rule as Soon as Tuesday Apple Tax Deals With Ireland Illegal

By Natalia Drozdiak and Viktoria Dendrinou 

BRUSSELS -- The European Union's executive body is poised to rule as soon as Tuesday that Apple Inc.'s tax arrangements with Ireland have breached the bloc's state-aid rules, according to people familiar with the matter.

In its statement declaring the tax arrangements illegal, the European Commission is expected to cite a figure range which Apple needs to pay back to Ireland and will likely request the national Irish authorities to calculate the exact figure.

The European Commission, the bloc's antitrust agency, opened a formal probe into Apple's tax arrangements more than two years ago, accusing Ireland of striking deals with the U.S. tech company in 1991 and 2007 that amounted to state aid.

The EU's decision would come days after the U.S. Treasury Department published a white paper sharply critiquing the EU's investigations into tax deals brokered between U.S. multinational companies and European countries.

The U.S. has accused the EU of unfairly targeting American companies in its investigations. American lawmakers have threatened to invoke an obscure section of the tax code that allows retaliatory double taxation.

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan earlier this summer said he expected a decision in the Apple case as soon as September.

Ireland previously has said it was confident its tax arrangements with Apple didn't breach EU rules, and it would defend "all aspects" of the case vigorously, in court if necessary.

The EU also is investigating Amazon.com Inc.'s tax arrangements with Luxembourg.

At issue are the tax rulings, or so-called comfort letters, governments hand to multinationals to give clarity on how a specific tax will be calculated. These would be illegal if they gave selective advantages to some companies.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at [e-mail] and Viktoria Dendrinou at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 29, 2016 14:25 ET (18:25 GMT)

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