The US Treasury official in charge of international tax policy, Robert Stack claimed that companies like Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and McDonald’s are being unfairly targeted by the European Commission over tax avoidance.
“We are concerned that the EU commission appears to be disproportionately targeting US companies,” reported the Financial Times quoting Stack after meeting with EU competition officials in Brussels on Friday.
The EU believes top US companies are avoiding by striking “sweetheart” deals with certain EU countries and this attitude of the EU was questioned by Stack who claimed the “basic fairness” of the ongoing investigations into billions in tax revenues by US companies in the EU.
There is a growing rift between European and US officials over issues including tax policy and online privacy and Stack’s strongly worded comments are likely to worsen a rift.
The alleged special treatment over taxes by the UK government to Google is being considered to be investigated by the European Commission and the comments came close on the heels to that news. McDonald’s and Apple are also under scrutiny.
Allegations that Apple does not pay its fair amount of taxes were dismissed by Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who termed them as “political crap”. Apple could owe as much as $8 Billion in back taxes if the European commission rules against the scheme where the company takes advantage of low tax rates in Ireland to cut its bill.
With the aim of gaining support over what they see as an unfair campaign by European officials, Cook and tech executives from Google and other companies have lobbied hard in Washington. In order to argue his case, Cook met with European commissioner Margrethe Vestager last week.
The preferential tax treatments offered to large US companies constitute a form of illegal “state aid”, the commission has argued. Luxembourg and the Netherlands have already been charged with recouping tens of millions of euros in back taxes from Fiat and Starbucks.
Arguments for a European-wide “digital tax” that would stop individual European countries brokering special deals to attract top tech companies have been repeatedly put forward by European tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici.
The EU is misguided in its thinking and may be targeting funds that rightly belong to the US Treasury, believes Stack as reported by the Financial Times.
“The retroactive application of these new approaches calls into question the basic fairness of the proceedings. We are greatly concerned that the EU commission is reaching out to tax income that no member state had the right to tax,” he said.
Huge cash reserves have been built up by companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and others taking advantage of foreign low tax regimes. More than $250 billion in cash reserves is present with Apple, the company announced earlier this week.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
“We are concerned that the EU commission appears to be disproportionately targeting US companies,” reported the Financial Times quoting Stack after meeting with EU competition officials in Brussels on Friday.
The EU believes top US companies are avoiding by striking “sweetheart” deals with certain EU countries and this attitude of the EU was questioned by Stack who claimed the “basic fairness” of the ongoing investigations into billions in tax revenues by US companies in the EU.
There is a growing rift between European and US officials over issues including tax policy and online privacy and Stack’s strongly worded comments are likely to worsen a rift.
The alleged special treatment over taxes by the UK government to Google is being considered to be investigated by the European Commission and the comments came close on the heels to that news. McDonald’s and Apple are also under scrutiny.
Allegations that Apple does not pay its fair amount of taxes were dismissed by Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who termed them as “political crap”. Apple could owe as much as $8 Billion in back taxes if the European commission rules against the scheme where the company takes advantage of low tax rates in Ireland to cut its bill.
With the aim of gaining support over what they see as an unfair campaign by European officials, Cook and tech executives from Google and other companies have lobbied hard in Washington. In order to argue his case, Cook met with European commissioner Margrethe Vestager last week.
The preferential tax treatments offered to large US companies constitute a form of illegal “state aid”, the commission has argued. Luxembourg and the Netherlands have already been charged with recouping tens of millions of euros in back taxes from Fiat and Starbucks.
Arguments for a European-wide “digital tax” that would stop individual European countries brokering special deals to attract top tech companies have been repeatedly put forward by European tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici.
The EU is misguided in its thinking and may be targeting funds that rightly belong to the US Treasury, believes Stack as reported by the Financial Times.
“The retroactive application of these new approaches calls into question the basic fairness of the proceedings. We are greatly concerned that the EU commission is reaching out to tax income that no member state had the right to tax,” he said.
Huge cash reserves have been built up by companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and others taking advantage of foreign low tax regimes. More than $250 billion in cash reserves is present with Apple, the company announced earlier this week.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)