Economy
(Brussels) “The member states cannot grant tax relief to specific companies and not to others: such treatment breaches the EU rules on state aids. The EU Commission’s investigation led to conclude that Ireland granted Apple unlawful tax relief that enabled the company to pay much less tax than other companies, for many, long years”. This is the comment of competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager about the decision taken in Brussels today about the IT giant. The EU Commission actually concluded, after extensive investigations, that “Ireland granted Apple an undue 13 billion euros’ tax relief”. Obviously, the news is going round the world. “Such treatment breaches the EU rules on state aids, since it enabled Apple to pay much less tax than other companies”. So, Ireland needs to recover such unlawful subsidy. The Cupertino-based company instantly spoke of a wrong decision, which will have repercussions on the company and on employment. Vestager explains: “the selective treatment that Apple benefited from enabled it to pay on its European income an actual rate of corporate tax of 1 per cent in 2003, which dropped down to 0.005 per cent in 2014”.
