Apple is going to be forced by the European Commission to pay taxes at the real value for the profit registered in Europe, now those from Cupertino benefit from a special agreement with Ireland to pay reduced taxes.
The European Commission published today a decision by which it decided that the tax reductions granted by the Belgian government to multinationals are illegal and that those companies must pay taxes at their normal value in Europe, they may be forced to make retroactive payments.
Similar decisions were taken in Luxembourg and the Netherlands after very long investigations carried out by the European Commission, and in Ireland a similar decision would be taken in cases involving Apple, Starbucks, Amazon and several other American companies.
Apple currently pays a tax of 2.5% on the profit made in Ireland, instead of the 12.5% paid by the rest of the companies operating in the country and through subsidiaries in other locations in Europe, the difference being enormous, hundreds of millions of dollars annually .
Apple has benefited from this discount for the payment of taxes for several decades, Ireland offering it to convince Apple to open a subsidiary in the country, through which all of Apple's European business related to product sales are carried out, but the European Commission does not agree with this thing.
If this agreement between Ireland and Apple will be considered illegal by the European Commission, and there is a very small chance that the decision will be different, then Apple could pay taxes retroactively for 10 years of activity, an estimate made last year making Apple owe 2.5 billions of dollars to the European Commission.
Apple has already paid 318 million dollars in Italy due to the fact that it collects in Ireland the money for the sales in Italy, and this amount will most likely be added to the one it is going to pay in Ireland, which is still much less than the 1.3 billion dollars initially requested by the Italian tax authorities.
Apple has warned its shareholders that it will pay taxes retroactively for the activity in Ireland, so it remains to be seen how much it will take out of the accounts.
