State may not get any Apple tax haul

The Irish exchequer could lose out on millions of euro from Apple if a proposal massively backed by MEPs in the European Parliament is adopted by the European Commission.

Irish MEPs did not have an opportunity to vote against the specific proposal as it was part of a comprehensive report on the commission’s annual competition report for 2014 but two Sinn Féin and one Independent abstained in the overall vote.

The commission is investigating whether an agreement on tax liability between the Revenue Commissioners and the world’s wealthiest technology company, Apple, amounted to illegal state aid.