The American chain CNBC published a few hours ago the astronomical figure to which the company could be sentenced, for illegal tax agreement with Ireland. Last March the first news related to this matter emerged. To understand the situation, we must go back 15 or 20 years when Ireland lowered corporate tax, acting as a magnet for large companies, especially technological ones, attracted by a more favorable taxation. Currently, the rest of the EU member countries consider the tax agreement adopted by Ireland illegal, as this country would be charging lower taxes than those agreed by the rest of the European partners.
The impact for Apple is such that it could be forced to pay the taxes saved with this tax advantage, this figure is around 1.000 million euros. Apple's statements, showing intentions to create a 1.000 new jobs, has not convinced the European commissioners on the matter.
The dance of figures is quite broad. The first sources indicate that Apple could be ordered to pay 1.100 million. Instead, other analysts point out that this figure is just the beginning, since they shuffle around 19.000 million dollars, counting back taxes, such as penalties for tax backlog. However, in most cases, to avoid so much recourse to the lawsuits presented, an agreement is usually reached that would be around the 8.000 million dollars.
Surely Apple will claim that it was an offer from Ireland to which it accepted, even so we do not know the impact that it may have for Apple. The normal thing is that this process takes longer in time and Apple is prepared for a supposed contingency. In principle, even though it is an astronomical figure, the company has more than enough liquidity to meet the payment of the fine.
What remains to be seen are the consequences of the sanction on Apple products. On the one hand, it is correct for the company to pay the same taxes, regardless of the country where you are taxed within the EU and have no advantages for taxing in a certain country. But what is almost certain is that it will affect the cost of apple products in one way or another. We will see in the coming months how this matter develops.
