It’s just over a week since Commissioner Vestager announced the state-aid ruling on the tax treatment of Apple in Ireland. We only have the press release and the Commissioner’s statement to go by so it’s still too early to be definitive on what the Commission are actually doing. It could be months before the full ruling is available here but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a stab at what might be going on.
There has been a lot of reaction to what the ruling means for Ireland’s Corporation Tax regime. While there has been massive reputational damage (possibly irreparably so) the ruling does not have any implications for Ireland’s Corporation Tax rate or even for any of the rules that Ireland applies to Corporation Tax.
Unlike previous instances the Commission is not looking for any change in Ireland’s Corporation Tax regime. In this instance looking for changes would likely have been overreach but that is not what the Commission is seeking. Nor is the Commission seeking to retrospectively impose alternative transfer pricing standards which was a central focus of the recent White Paper from the US Treasury. If the Commission’s case required a change of rules or the application of new standards it would have had little hope of standing up to an appeal.