EU tells UK to claw back multinational tax breaks

The EU ordered the UK to claw back illegal tax breaks designed to lure multinationals — in a timely reminder the EU still calls the shots on competition rules until Britain leaves the bloc.

The European Commission said the British gave certain multinationals a selective advantage by granting them an unjustified exemption from UK anti–tax avoidance rules. “This is illegal under EU state aid rules,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said. “The UK must now recover the undue tax benefits."