LONDON (AP) — Apple might end up on the hook after all for billions of euros in back taxes to Ireland in the latest twist in a longrunning European Union dispute, following a legal opinion Thursday from an adviser to the bloc’s top court.
A decision by a lower court that the U.S. tech giant doesn’t have to repay the 13 billion euros ($13.9 billion) in taxes “should be set aside,” Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella said in his opinion to the European Court of Justice.
The case drew outrage from Apple when it was opened in 2016, with CEO Tim Cook calling it “total political crap.” Then-U.S. President Donald Trump referred to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who spearheaded the campaign to root out special tax deals and crack down on big U.S. tech companies, as the “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.”
In its 2020 ruling, the European Union’s General Court disagreed with the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, which had accused Apple of striking an illegal tax deal with Irish authorities so that it could pay extremely low rates.
Pitruzzella advised the European Court of Justice…
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