Irish Examiner view: More than tax

The logo of Apple is illuminated at a store. The Apple case is about much more than tax, and maybe it’s time it was more widely regarded as such. Picture: AP 

It was inevitable, and very important, that the EU Commission challenged the €13bn tax decision given in favour of tech giant Apple last year. The court rejected arguments by the EU Commission that Apple, the biggest private employer in Cork, had to make good underpayment of profits because it struck an illegal tax deal with Ireland. That ruling represented a bitter defeat for the then EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager and may be one of the reasons that Ursula von der Lyen is now president of the commission.

If this episode is viewed simply as a case involving an international corporation and a tax office, then it is possible to be less interested, less agitated by it. The case was an effort to make transnational organisations face their responsibilities — as they insist they do.

However, data published last month in America that shows that US billionaires have collectively become $1.1 trillion — nearly 40% — richer since mid-March may suggest otherwise. The Apple case is about much more than tax, and maybe it’s time it was more widely regarded as such.