The EU’s top court said on Thursday it will deliver its keenly-awaited ruling on Apple’s tax affairs in the Republic on September 10th.
A key adviser to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recommended last November that it set aside a 2020 EU general court ruling that the European Commission had failed to stand up a claim the iPhone maker owed the Republic more than €13 billion in back taxes, plus interest.
The ECJ typically rules on cases between three and six months after such an adviser, known as an advocate general, issues an opinion.
While there had been an expectation in Dublin that the ECJ decision would be issued in June, sources said on June 13th that it would not be made until after the court’s summer recess, which spanned from mid-July to the end of August.
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In his opinion in November, advocate general Giovanni Pitruzzella said the general court, the lower court, committed a series of errors of law and failed to assess “certain methodological errors” relating to Apple’s Irish tax liabilities.
He recommended the ECJ set aside the general court’s judgment and that it be sent back down to the lower court for a new ruling on the case’s merits.
The views of advocates general are typically followed by the court.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager ordered Apple in 2016 to pay the State more than €13 billion in alleged back taxes, covering 2004-2014, as she claimed the Republic had given the US tech giant illegal tax aid.
The decision centred on two tax opinions, or “rulings” as they are referred to, handed out by Revenue in 1991 and 2007 to Apple subsidiaries in Ireland.
The commission said the rulings gave Apple an unfair and select advantage over other corporate taxpayers.
A legal appeal by Ireland and Apple against the commission’s decision resulted in a ruling by the EU general court in 2020 that Ms Vestager’s officials fell short of showing to “the requisite legal standard” that Apple had received illegal State aid.
The advocate general concluded the general court had made a series of errors of law in its ruling.
In 2018 the Government collected and put into escrow the alleged €14.3 billion of back taxes and interest the commission claimed the State was owed from Apple.
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