EU to publish details of state aid probe into Irish private rulings granted to Apple

The European Commission will publish this week the formal letter the Commission sent to Ireland in June setting out its preliminary view that Ireland violated state aid in granting private tax rulings to Apple, Ireland’s Department of Finance said in a September 29 release.

The publication of the Commission’s “Opening Decision” in the Apple case will give parties the opportunity to submit comments to the European Commission, the Irish government said.

The controversy concerns Irish tax rulings that may have allocated too little taxable profit to the Irish branches of Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe, EU.

The European Commission first announced its state aid investigation into the Apple rulings on June 11. On that date it also announced it was investigating whether rulings granted to Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat in Luxembourg violated state as they sanctioned the allocation of too little profit to activities in those countries.

The decision is part of a wider investigation into whether tax rulings and patent box regimes that benefit MNEs are permitted under EU law.

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