The Government will “respect the findings” of a landmark court ruling ordering that computing giant Apple must repay Ireland €13 billion in back taxes.
In a statement on Tuesday morning following the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the Government said: “The CJEU has found that the tax paid was insufficient and that a greater amount of taxation was required to be recovered.
“Ireland will of course respect the findings of the court regarding the tax due in this case.”
The Department of Finance said the judgment provides the final determination in the case and that the process of transferring the money, which has been held in escrow, to Ireland will now begin.
A note circulated by the department within the Government said it will “now engage with the relevant parties such as Revenue and the NTMA [National Treasury Management Agency] to begin this process.”
The decision sparked a volley of criticism of the Government by Opposition parties, as well as calls to clarify what the wider implications of the judgment were for Ireland.
[ Apple’s €13bn Irish tax case timelineOpens in new window ]
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, said the ruling was expected. “I always believed that this day was inevitable. I believed that that would be the judgment. And I thought it was absolutely a colossal mistake for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to continue to defend this practice and to use taxpayers’ money – this puts debates about bike sheds into the ha’penny place,” Mr Doherty told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
“They spent millions of euro of our money defending this, trying to prevent us getting €13 billion of taxes. And remember when they took this case in 2014, this €13 billion would have built tens of thousands of social and affordable houses right across the State,” he said. “It could have transformed Irish society. It could have prevented a lot of the pain that we’re seeing as a result of this policy.”
Mr Doherty said that “stateless companies” were at the core of this issue.
[ Why does the Government not want the €13bn in back taxes from Apple?Opens in new window ]
“When I started raising that with Michael Noonan, the minister [for finance] at the time, I was being described as a nuisance; he said I was damaging the reputation of Ireland,” Mr Doherty said. “It was me and Sinn Féin that produced the legislation that actually closed down this loophole. So it is historic.”
Labour Party spokesman Ged Nash called for a full Dáil debate when the House reconvenes next Wednesday, and for an immediate statement from Minister for Finance Jack Chambers “outlining the wider implications of the judgment for Ireland’s corporation tax system and for our industrial policy”.
He said it was a “genuine windfall for the State”, calling for the proceeds to be redirected to housing, infrastructure and to fund climate-change measures.
Róisín Shortall, the Social Democrats spokeswoman on finance, welcomed the judgment and said it reflects “extremely badly on the Fine Gael-led government which opted to appeal this decision back in 2016″.
She said that government “put corporate interests over the public interest and wasted the opportunity to invest some or all of this money in critical public services – like housing and healthcare”.
She said the current Government “must now explain to the people why it has spent eight years fighting this case”.
Paul Murphy, the People Before Profit TD for Dublin South West, said it was a “good day for the Irish public and a very bad day for the Irish Government”, which “has fought tooth and nail for one of the richest corporations on Earth against the interests of the public”.
[ What is going on with the Apple tax case and what does it mean?Opens in new window ]
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he has written to the chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee John McGuiness requesting that the Minister for Finance Jack Chambers and the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe be brought before it. “Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens fought the EU to prevent Irish citizens from legally receiving €13billion in tax,” he said.
“This is an astounding fact and begs the question - who is the Irish Government working for? In whose interests is the Irish Government operating?” he asked.
“In this case its clear, the Irish Government were not working in the interests of the Irish people. The opportunity cost of this forgone €13b illion is astounding. It’s a equivalent of building 32,500 houses at today’s crazy prices. It’s the equivalent of a half a dozen hospitals even at the grossly inflated government rate.”
The Department of Finance reiterated Ireland’s position, which is that it does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers. It said that the case involved an issue that “is now of historical relevance only” and that two tax opinions provided by Revenue to Apple in 1991 and 2007 that formed the crux of the case are no longer in force.
“Ireland has already introduced changes to the law regarding corporate residence rules and the attribution of profits to branches of non-resident companies operating in the State.”
The department added: “Ireland is an active participant in international tax discussions and has also made necessary changes to its taxation regime as international tax rules have developed over time.”
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