Finance executives at big companies get paid a small fortune to find loopholes in the tax code that will allow them to save as much money as possible on their tax bills. Tax laws in the U.S. and elsewhere are painfully complex, of course, but there are always fine lines that can be walked in order to pocket as much income as possible. Apple does the tax dance as well as any other big corporation, and now it will apparently face a probe from the European Commission, which will reportedly look to investigate Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland.
Reuters on Wednesday relayed a report from Irish news radio station RTE stating claiming that European Union regulators will probe Apple’s Irish subsidiary. The report did not name a source and the European Commission has not yet announced its investigation. A spokesman for the Commission declined to provide Reuters with a comment and the finance ministry of Ireland said it was not aware of any investigation.
The European Union’s competition authority announced last year that it would begin investigating corporate tax practices in a number of European countries, including Ireland.
