Apple’s tax move - Must-win battle

Apple has decided to pay taxes of around €31bn — twice our annual health budget — to move hundreds of billions of dollars to the US.

Apple has decided to pay taxes of around €31bn — twice our annual health budget — to move hundreds of billions of dollars to the US.

It gives a glimpse of the scale of the problem facing national legislators and even the EU when they try to fairly tax multinational corporations to try to sustain what might be described, in the very loosest terms, as Europe’s social contract.

The transfer comes after Congress scrapped tax rules that allowed corporations to defer US income taxes on foreign earnings until they bring that income to the US.

The situation is indeed fraught. Apple insists it pay all the taxes it owes wherever they are owed and we insist Ireland is not a tax haven.

The most generous terms of interpretation would have to be applied to make either of those assertions seem entirely credible.

The EU has reacted calmly to Apple’s decision, underlining that “nothing has changed” in its order for the iPhone maker to pay back taxes of around €13bn to Ireland. This is not a battle the EU — or any of us — can afford to lose.