Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The European Commission has ruled that Apple owes €13 billion in corporate tax to Ireland on profits earned between 2004 and 2014. However, as pointed out by Seamus Coffey, that might not be the end of the story. When the state aid decision is finally handed down by the courts, they may decide that Apple owes the State more than €13 billion plus interest and penalties and that it could owe between €2.5 billion and €3 billion for each year since 2015. This is due to the fact that in light of the Paradise Papers last year, Commissioner Vestager said that she was gathering information about Apple's 2015 restructure. The Minister is familiar with this issue because I have questioned him on it on many occasions. What happened was Apple moved its intellectual property to an Irish resident company, conveniently coinciding with the intangible asset write-downs cap being increased from 80% to 100%. This allowed the company to write down billions of euro in profits in 2015. However, there is a major snag in the restructure since 2015 as outlined by Mr. Coffey. Section 291A(7)(c) of the tax code specifically states that these deductions are not allowable if the expenditure was incurred as part of a scheme or arrangement in which the main purpose was to avoid tax. This is what will be brought into sharp focus by the Commission given its determination that Apple had a tax liability in 2015. Apple representatives said in response to media queries that the restructure in 2015 was for the main purpose in respect of tax.

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