Tim Cook Calls EU Ruling ‘Political Crap’ (AAPL)

The European Commission rejected on Thursday Apple’s criticism that an EU order to the company to pay back taxes to Ireland was political, noting the calculations were based on facts and Apple’s own data. “We haven’t done anything wrong, and the Irish government hasn’t done anything wrong”.

However, according to The Irish Times, Vestager has refuted Cook’s claims that there was a political motive behind the ruling. “There should be a public discussion about it”. The commissioner said: “The Apple case is about profits made by sale in Europe so obviously it is a question of tax being paid in Europe”. The decision raised alarm in the US, where Apple executives and politicians called it a politicized money grab.

“I have no idea where the number came from, it is not true”, he said.

Apple was found to be holding over $US181 billion in accumulated profits offshore, more than any USA company, in a study published previous year by two left-leaning non-profit groups, a policy critics say is created to avoid paying United States taxes. We were certainly one of the largest corporate taxpayers in Ireland that year, if not the largest. “Ireland is being picked on, and this is unacceptable”, he said in the interview published Thursday.

The Irish cabinet will meet on Friday to decide whether to launch an appeal against the decision, having already failed to reach a consensus on Wednesday.

Cook earlier told Irish national broadcaster RTE that Apple had never received any “sweetheart deal” from Ireland and that his company’s global tax rate in 2014 was 21.6%. He believes that both Apple and Ireland will be successful in an appeal.

Apple chief Tim Cook has gone on the offensive against a “maddening” tax ruling imposed by the European Commission which puts it on the hook for as much as $13bn in back dated tax.

“The Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years”, said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

The US tech giant has been ordered to pay Ireland up to €19bn in back taxes and interest charges in a landmark decision by EU’s financial watchdog.

Mr Cook said he was “very confident” the ruling would be overturned on appeal. “The figures that we used in our decision are the figures that we got from Apple themselves”, she said.

The Apple boss also slammed the commission for appearing to focus on USA companies in its probes. “Like any marriage you go through pothole here or there but we stuck together because we always felt so close to the community and the people there”. “It’s not true that we paid just $400m or even just $800m [to Ireland and the U.S. combined] – the number is materially larger”.