Around sixteen years ago, Apple set up a European headquarters in Ireland. As part of the deal....taxes were fixed in some way to be less than you'd normally pay in Germany or France.
A lot of this deal had to do with jobs, and Ireland felt satisfied to get a big name company to come in and build an operation on Irish soil.
Well....the EU sat there and for years....was dismayed. The lessened tax deal was simply not right.
So around 2014, the EU started a commission to investigate this and assess the proper tax owed to Ireland, and thus to the EU. It's the first time that the EU had stepped out and hinted that they had tax power. In 2016, the letter came to Ireland....you need to take Apple to court, and they owe you 13-billion Euro (with interest on top of that)....for the period of 2004 to 2014.
Ireland kinda stood, laughed a bit, and said 'no'. They have a tax on the books, and the EU can't make up Irish tax code. So it went to court.
This week, court wrapped up the mess (taking almost 3 years). The EU court said 'no, you haven't show that the law works in this fashion.' The EU effort is thus doomed.
In 2018, Apple felt some worry over this.....so they set some money aside (some say the whole 13-billion Euro....some suggest less. That money can probably be used by Apple for some massive purchase, if they had a mind to expand.
The end? I'm not so sure about this. It still angers the EU that Ireland can set up their own tax situation and I'm guessing some effort by the EU will occur where all countries will be given a tax mechanism to fit with their GDP in the future. Whether they agree to it or not....will be the question.
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