Ms Margrethe Vestager:

First of all, it is not something they can feel. I recognise that people have sensitivities as to whether matters are right and wrong. What would be the case if a tax authority in a member state could prove the Apple operation in it had developed to be a way of working which actually would allow for profits to be recorded in that member state? If that would be the case, then there would be a taxable profit. If that is not the case, then it is not the case. What we could see from the Commission’s side and from the investigating we have done is that for profits recorded in Ireland, where we have questioned the way tax rulings worked, we have found there is no economic reality to back up the way those profits were recorded. The profits ought to be recorded where the work was actually to be done, namely in the branch. Accordingly, the branch would be taxed under the normal Irish tax rate of 12.5%.