EU loses big Starbucks tax case, wins on Fiat

In cases keenly being watched by Apple, ordered to repay Ireland 13 billion euros in 2016, Brussels saw its unpaid taxes claim a
In cases keenly being watched by Apple, ordered to repay Ireland 13 billion euros in 2016, Brussels saw its unpaid taxes claim against Starbucks annulled—but upheld in the case of Fiat




The court result is a mixed blessing for the EU's anti-trust supremo Margrethe Vestager, one of the EU's highest profile officials who made her name by slapping mega-fines on Google.

In a statement she said the decisions "gave important guidance" and that the EU would continue its fight against "aggressive tax planning".

"The judgements confirm that, while member states have exclusive competence in determining their laws concerning direct taxation, they must do so in respect of EU law, including state aid rules," she said in a statement.

The cases can now be appealed at the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice, a process that could take years.

Starbucks in a statement said the ruling "makes clear" that it "did not receive any special tax treatment from the Netherlands."


"This decision proves that the Dutch tax authorities treated Starbucks like any other company, and no better or different," Dutch secretary of state for finance Menno Snel said in a statement.


That case drew global attention, and infuriated Apple CEO Tim Cim cook who called it "total political crap".


The issue hit close to home in 2014 with the LuxLeaks scandal which revealed that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's native Luxembourg gave companies favourable tax deals while he was prime minister.



'In the bin'



Tove Maria Ryding, tax expert at the European Network on Debt and Development, welcomed the state aid cases as they "exposed cracks in the broken tax system".

However, "the only way to ensure that multinational corporations are taxed fairly and effectively is to throw the existing corporate tax rules in the bin and create a new and better system," she said.

In the new commission, Vestager has been promoted to executive vice president and will effectively become Europe's tech regulation czar, while still holding on to her powerful anti-trust portfolio.

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© 2019 AFP

Citation: EU loses big Starbucks tax case, wins on Fiat (2019, September 24) retrieved 28 July 2021 from https://techxplore.com/news/2019-09-starbucks-fiat-brace-eu-court.html

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