Ireland has been seeking to attract US multinationals by offering extremely favourable tax conditions, known as sweetheart deals. "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," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said. Ireland immediately said it would appeal against the decision and Apple is also expected to challenge it. In a white paper, the US Treasury said the commission probe into alleged special tax treatment that certain EU countries gave Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler "undermines the international tax system." Apple, which with Ireland, has already said it will appeal the decision, paid a tax rate on European profits of between 0.005 and one per cent, the Commission said.

Source: New Zealand Herald August 30, 2016 13:41 UTC