Apple complains to White House over EU tax ruling

Apple has raised concerns with the White House about what it believes is unfair treatment by the EU Commission after Brussels directed the firm to pay €13 billion over "illegal" tax benefits granted by Ireland, the Obama administration has said.

US president Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said Apple executives had contacted the administration about the commission's order that the company pay the Irish Government €13 billion in back taxes.

“Obama administration officials, not surprisingly, have heard from officials at Apple who are concerned at the way they are being treated by foreign governments,” Mr Earnest said.

Concern

The White House expressed concern, too, about the ruling, saying that American taxpayers will ultimately foot the €13 billion tax bill.

Mr Earnest said “the crux” of the administration’s concerns was in the Californian company’s ability to deduct the EU taxes from its US tax bill, leading in effect to a transfer of revenue from US to the EU.

“That wouldn’t be fair to US taxpayers,” he said.

He declined to comment specifically on the ruling as the Government has signalled its intention to appeal, but said there were “important principles at stake” in the EU’s approach to these types of investigations.

“We are concerned about a unilateral approach in state-aid negotiations that threaten to undermine progress that we have made collaboratively with the Europeans to make the international taxation system fair,” he said.

The White House wanted the EU to work “collaboratively” with the US to ensure the tax system was fair to US taxpayers and firms, he said.