The European authorities are still hoping to get $13 billion from US corporation Apple. This considerable amount of money may be useful for them, especially amid the coronavirus crisis. However, the local court is still on the side of the technology giant.
The point is that the European Union's general court ordered Apple to pay a record fine for allegedly illegal tax benefits granted to the company for quite some time. Given that the tech giant is incorporated in Ireland, its tax corporation payments should have amounted to 12.5%. However, investigations revealed that Apple and other foreign technology companies were paying at the rate of 9.5%. In the meantime, most European corporations have to pay the corporation tax equal to 23%. Ireland has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in Europe. That is why companies choose this country as a place of registration. This allows them to significantly reduce tax costs. The European Court of Justice has already considered the complaint of Brussels against Apple but sided with the US corporation. The judges said that there was not enough evidence to accuse the company of breaking EU competition rules. However, the European Commission was not satisfied with the judgment delivered by the court and promised to appeal a court ruling.
The EU and the US are struggling for the right to levy taxes on leading digital companies. In 2019, some European countries introduced special taxes on revenues resulting from sales made in a particular state.
