Lew says Apple’s tax fight could spur congressional action

Cook, in an interview with the Irish Independent, labelled Brussels’ competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s decision as “total political crap”. “The figures that we used in our decision are the figures that we got from Apple themselves”, she said.

The watchdog’s landmark ruling into the iPad and iPhone maker’s tax affairs found it paid just 1% tax on its European profits in 2003 and 0.005% in 2014 after getting assurances from tax inspectors about its tax affairs and how it routed sales figures through subsidiaries in Ireland and on to the US.

“I think that Apple was targeted here”, he said.

The European Commission’s order that Apple pay back taxes has drawn the ire of the US administration and Congress, and fears are growing that such discord may cloud the future of worldwide cooperation on fighting corporate tax evasion.

But the companies, industrial and tech titans like Apple, Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX – news), General Electric (Euronext: GNE.NX – news) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE – news), also say they are waiting for Washington to cut corporate tax rates to reasonable levels before they repatriate the funds. “We believe that makes us the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year”, he said.

The European island offers the lure of minimal regulation and significantly lower corporate tax rates (12.5% vs. 35% in the U.S.), a major reason why top US tech companies – including Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Twitter and eBay – have corporate facilities in Ireland, where they employ thousands.

She said the calculations of the back tax owned by Apple to Ireland were based on data provided by Apple itself and facts presented during hearings on Apple tax issues in the United States.

On the other side of the aisle, Senator Ron Wyden (D – Oregon), the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, called the Commission’s ruling “extremely concerning” and agreed that it could undermine internationally accepted legal principles in the area of taxation. “Apple has been in Ireland since the 1980s and employs thousands of people in Cork”. But the cash would be quite meaningful for a country with a population of less than 4.6 million, or more than $3,000 per capita.

“Beyond the obvious targeting of Apple, the most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe”. Ireland is also expected to appeal, although the government postponed a decision on Wednesday. Last week the treasury department warned that it would “consider its options.”

The ruling found that European Union member states couldn’t give tax benefits to selected companies because it was illegal under European Union state aid rules.

Apple says it paid $400 million in taxes in Ireland in 2014, and another $400 million to the U.S.

A ruling by the European Commission in October that a tax arrangement between Starbucks and the Netherlands was illegal is now on appeal to the EU General Court, as is a similar ruling against Fiat in Luxembourg.