BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) – Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem urged Apple Saturday to “get ready” to pay up, as he and counterparts from other EU nations lined up behind a finding that the technology giant owes billions of euros due to more than a decade of improperly low taxation.
Apple’s bill could reach 19 billion euros ($21 billion) with interest, and both the company and Ireland, Apple’s European headquarters are appealing the European Commission ruling. But on the last day of an EU finance ministers’ meeting focused on ways to harmonize tax rules for international companies, Dijsselbloem told reporters that these “have an obligation to pay taxes in a fair way.”
“International tax loopholes are a thing of the past,” he said. Apple will have to pay back taxes both in the United States and Europe, he added, “so get ready to do that.”
Philip Hammond, his British counterpart, said the EU was keen “to make sure that international corporations pay the right tax at the right place.”
“That’s the fair way to do it, and we are going to make sure it happens,” Hammond said.