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Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Type |
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Amazon.com Inc | NASDAQ:AMZN | NASDAQ | Common Stock |
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BRUSSELS—The European Union may announce its decision in its long-running probe into Apple Inc.'s tax arrangements with Ireland in July, the country's finance minister said Thursday.
"There's speculation that there may be a decision... in July, but we have no confirmation of that and no further information," Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said upon entering a gathering of the eurozone finance chiefs in Luxembourg.
The European Commission, the bloc's antitrust agency, opened a formal investigation into Apple's tax practices in June 2014, saying it had reached the "preliminary view" that tax deals struck with Apple in Ireland in 1991 and 2007 constituted state aid.
"The investigation is ongoing and we cannot prejudge its outcome or the timing of a decision," the commission said in a statement Thursday. An Apple spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The commission has said it has specific doubts—based on an analysis of exchanges between representatives of Apple and the Irish tax authorities—about the methods used to calculate taxes payable by two of Apple's subsidiaries in Ireland: Apple Operations Europe and Apple Sales International.
"The consideration by [Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe] Vestager's [team] is continuing...we have cooperated and given them all the data they have requested," Mr. Noonan added.
People close to Apple also say they expect the commission's decision to come in late July but are still uncertain about the specifics of the commission's decision and how much it will ask Ireland to retrieve from the company in back-payments.
The commission closed separate state aid investigations last fall, demanding that Luxembourg and the Netherlands retrieve between €20 million and €30 million ($22.3 million and $33.44 million) from each Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Starbucks Corp. respectively.
The EU is also investigating Amazon.com Inc.'s tax arrangements with Luxembourg. Decisions in the four state aid investigations had initially been expected to be issued all at once so as not to single out any one company.
At issue are the tax rulings, or so-called comfort letters, sent by governments 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.
Ireland 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. Apple executives have also previously said they believed they've paid the money due in Ireland and that they haven't benefited from state aid.
The EU has been cracking down on companies trying to dodge taxes following revelations in 2014 that many multinational companies struck sweetheart deals in countries such as Luxembourg that allowed them to pay little tax in the bloc. Corporate tax avoidance costs the bloc's member states between €50 billion and €70 billion a year in lost tax revenues, according to the EU.
U.S. officials have accused Ms. Vestager of disproportionately targeting American companies, particularly in the state aid investigations. But the EU has rejected the allegations, stressing they have also taken negative decisions against European firms.
Gabriele Steinhauser in Luxembourg contributed to this article.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2016 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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