Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri said on Tuesday the iPhone maker's investment plans in Ireland have not changed following the EU ruling that it must pay up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes to the Republic.
"We have an outstanding relationship over the years with the Irish Government and we are very committed to Ireland," Mr Maestri said on a conference call with journalists. "We have recently made additional investments in the country, and our plans to invest in Ireland have not changed."
Apple, which set up a base in Ireland in 1980, said in November that it plans to add a further 1,000 jobs in its base in Cork by the middle of next year, bringing its Irish workforce up to 6,000.
While accountancy firm Grant Thornton estimates that Apple faces an additional interest bill of €6 billion as Ireland is forced to recover back taxes from the company between 2003 and 2014, Mr Maestri said "we believe it is going to be a significantly lower number".
Irish tax laws
Apple has come out fighting following the European Commission’s final decision, with chief executive
Tim Cook
posting an open letter criticising the EU for “effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the commission thinks the law should be”.
The California-based group said it would be appealing the ruling with the Irish Government, and it was “confident” the order would be reversed in court.
"We're trying to sound an alarm bell that what the commission is doing has real consequences for property, for investment, for international trade," Apple's general counsel Bruce Sewell said on the conference call.
The EU’s decision “casts a pall” over the ability of companies doing business in the bloc, throwing into questions the legitimacy of any deals they strike with member states.
Investments
Mr Maestri said he believed that multinational companies would have concerns in future about making investments in
Europe
based on the commission’s ruling.
Cork Chamber, which represents about 1,100 businesses in Cork, said it welcomes Apple’s continued commitment to investing and expanding its operations in Ireland.
The chamber’s president, Barrie O’Connell, called on the Cabinet to approve an appeal process to the European courts at its meeting on Wednesday morning.
“Ireland’s tax reputation is a key pillar of our overall investment strategy which must be defended to provide certainty to business when making investment decisions,” Mr O’Connell said.
