MIDWAY ATOLL: The White House says President Barack Obama will lead a discussion of tax avoidance, spurred by the European Union’s recent decision about Apple, during the G20 summit of major economies.
Obama arrives Saturday in China for the Group of 20 meeting.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says there’s a need to address the problem of eroding tax bases in a way that’s fair to companies.
He says the approach needs to be consistent and globally coordinated, rather than unilateral action by individual countries.
Earnest says the issue is highly technical and the US doesn’t expect a major breakthrough during the G20.
The long-running debate escalated sharply earlier this week when the EU ordered Apple to pay Ireland $14.5 billion in back taxes, plus interest.
Ireland’s Cabinet has meanwhile agreed to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has slapped on the iPhone maker, despite misgivings among independents who back the fragile coalition.
A government spokesman said that following the cabinet’s decision, it would ask parliament to endorse the legal challenge on Wednesday next week.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted Dublin would fight any adverse ruling ever since the European Union began investigating the US tech giant’s Irish tax affairs in 2014, arguing that it had to protect a tax regime that has attracted large numbers of multinational employers. But at an earlier Cabinet meeting on Wednesday he failed to persuade a group of independent lawmakers, whose support is vital for the minority government, to agree to fight the ruling that Apple must pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in tax to Dublin.
Ireland’s main opposition party, Fianna Fail, also favors challenging Brussels. The government should therefore easily win parliamentary support to appeal against European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s ruling that Apple’s low tax arrangements in Ireland constitutes illegal state aid.
Apple, anxious to defend its own interests, has already said it will lodge an appeal.
Apple CEO Tim Cook warned that if the Dublin government did not join it in appealing, this would send the wrong message to business in a country whose economic model depends in part on companies like his.
