Ireland has been asked to provide more details about the country’s tax deal with Apple by the European Commission, which has spent more than two years investigating whether the arrangements with the technology giant broke the rules on EU state aid
In a statement, a spokesman for the European Commission said: ‘Ireland did not reply in full to the Commission's last request for information, which is why the Commission has sent a reminder to Ireland to request the missing data.
‘Furthermore, the Commission has requested clarifications to follow up on some of the replies sent by Ireland.’
Ireland’s department of finance said it has given a detailed response, and also said an EU ruling was not imminent.
‘There is simply no question that the Irish authorities sought to give the company in question any kind of special tax deal,’ a department of finance statement confirmed.
It added that the Irish authorities had ‘comprehensively addressed’ the Commission’s concerns and that the ‘appropriate amount of Irish tax was charged in accordance with the relevant legislation’.
Last week, Cathy Kearney, Apple vice president for operations, who is based in Cork in Ireland, joined other multinational representatives at a session of the European parliament’s special committee on tax rulings. She told MEPs the company’s tax arrangements in Ireland did not involve state aid and said Apple ‘does not operate a double Irish structure’.
‘We’ve paid every cent of tax that’s due in Ireland. We don’t feel that there has been state aid involved, and we look forward to that outcome happening at the end of the day and being vindicated in that view,’ Kearney said.
