Apple’s appeal against the €13 billion ($14.3 billion) Irish tax ruling is due to begin tomorrow, and chief financial officer Luca Maestri is reported to be heading the team.
Apple is reportedly taking five other execs to help the company make its case in a court case scheduled to last just two days…
Background
We recently outlined the background to the case.
Irish tax ruling appeal
We learned a month ago that the appeals from both Apple and the Irish government will be combined into a single hearing, and that the case would last only two days.
The EU ruled that these arrangements were illegal. It was the Irish government, rather than Apple, which was found to have broken the law, but because the arrangement was not lawful it meant that Apple owed the taxes which should have been collected.
As both parties appealed, it was agreed that Apple would pay the sum into an escrow account, where it would be held pending the appeal.
Reuters reports that Maestri is the lead witness in the case.
Whatever the outcome of the appeal, that may not be the end of Apple’s tax troubles in Europe: France is expected to go after the company after a recent $1.1 billion victory against Google. Italy did the same in 2015, and other European countries may follow suit.
Apple is expected to argue that it did nothing wrong as it had followed Irish and US tax laws. It made similar arguments in a blog following an EU tax ruling a couple of years ago.
It will tell the court that the bulk of its taxes are owed to the United States because the majority of the value in its products, including design, engineering, and development, is created there.
Photo: Alex Grimm/Reuters
