According to a recent report by Reuters, EU antitrust enforcers have claimed that the court involved in Apple’s tax judgment case made legal errors when it scrapped its order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros in Irish back taxes. EU antitrust enforcers are filling to have the verdict overturned.
The European Commission sees this as aggressive tax planning by multinationals, because of which the stakes for this case are quite high. Due to the claims made, the $15.7 billion Apple tax judgment verdict could get overturned.
EU claims court error to overturn Apple tax judgment
According to the report, the European Commission is appealing to a ruling made last year which stated that the EU executive did not reach the necessary legal standard to show the Cupertino tech giant had enjoyed an unfair advantage.
The Commission is appealing to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union following a ruling last year by the General Court, which said the EU executive had not met the requisite legal standard to show Apple had enjoyed an unfair advantage.
In its 2016 finding the Commission claimed two Irish tax rulings had artificially reduced Apple’s tax burden for over two decades, which in 2014 was as low as 0.005%.
In a filing in the Office Journal, the Commission said, “the General Court’s failure to properly consider the structure and content of the decision and the explanations in the Commission’s written submissions on the functions performed by the head offices and the Irish branches is a breach of procedure.”
Regarding this case, Apple said the facts have not changed since the lower tribunal’s ruling. The company said that after it had the chance to review the facts and claims made by the Commission, the company said that the General Court was clear in their determination and that Apple has always abided by the law in Ireland as it has everywhere else.
A hearing on the case is scheduled in the coming months by the CJEU. The is C-456/20 P Commission v Ireland and Others.
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