The economic journal Bloomberg BNA has published statements made by León Fernando del Canto in an article analyzing the fiscal situation faced by Apple in Europe after being sanctioned by the European Commission to pay 13bn euros in back taxes to Ireland.
Journalists Rick Mitchell and Ben Stupples wrote in their article “Apple may face double tax on profits if France adds to tab” about the possibility that the American multinational could face a similar process in France because Michel Sapin, the French Minister of Finance, considered “legitimate” the sanction imposed by the EC on Apple. They state that such a process could mean a case of double taxation.
Also, they warn that Apple could even face triple taxation if the company decided to take the profits back to their headquarters in the US, as they would have to pay taxes for those earnings.
But France is not the only European country where Apple is starting to have problems. Both Italy and Spain are investigating the tech giant. In the Spanish case, the Tax Agency is analyzing Apple’s tax duties regarding corporate tax, non-resident tax and VAT.
In this sense, León Fernando del Canto gives context to those investigations in Spain with the implementation in Europe of the OECD’s project BEPS, and explains that taking into account Apple has “more than 1.000 employees and a strong management structure in Spain, the Spanish Authorities are asking Apple: “Why is over 90 percent of your billing coming from Ireland?”.
Apple’s taxation architecture in Spain is quite complex and is designed with the goal of lowering as much as possible tax payments, as our tax lawyer Claudio Rodríguez Vera already stated in a previous article titled “The European Commission against Apple’s taxation spider web”, published in Del Canto Chambers’ blog.
Finally, Bloomberg BNA points out that concerning profits, Europe is the third largest market worldwide for Apple.
Del Canto Chambers‘ taxation team are specialized in international taxation and may be contacted at clerk@delcantochambers.com
Del Canto Chambers’ Editorial Board.
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