Apple CEO calls EU tax ruling ‘total political crap’.

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook described an EU ruling that it must pay a huge tax bill to Ireland as “total political crap,” but France joined Germany on Thursday in backing Brussels as transatlantic tensions grow.Cook has blasted the decision by the European Commission which obliges Apple to repay the huge sum as well as interest in back taxes to the Irish government.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager dismissed Cook’s broadside, saying the demand for a 13 billion euro ($19 billion Cdn) back tax payment was based on the facts.

According to Cook, the regulator’s move was a politically motivated attempt to harmonize tax rates across the European Union with Apple suffering because of anti-American sentiment at the commission.Washington has lined up with the tech giant, blaming the European Union for attempting to snatch tax revenue that should go to the U.S. government. Be that as it may, in Ireland itself public opinion and the government are separated about whether to take the bonus – which would finance the nation’s wellbeing system for a year, or reject it in the hope of keeping up a low tax regime that has pulled in numerous multinationals and the employments they create.

Apple has said it will appeal the ruling which Cook attacked in an interview with the Irish Independent. “No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together. Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable,” the newspaper quoted him saying. “It’s total political crap.”

Vestager has questioned how anyone might think an arrangement that allowed the iPhone maker to pay a tax rate of 0.005 per cent, as Apple’s main Irish unit did in 2014, was fair.She said on Thursday that the calculations were based on data provided by Apple itself and evidence presented during hearings on Apple tax issues in the United States. Asked if she accepted Cook’s comments on the ruling, she told a news conference: “No, I will not. This is a decision based on the facts of the case.”

Following a three-year investigation into the iPhone maker’s complicated tax schemes, the European Commission concluded that the company benefited from a sweetheart tax deal granted by the Irish government in breach of the European Union’s state aid rules. The Irish government, pushed by fears of losing its competitiveness in attracting global businesses, voiced plans to appeal the order just after the ruling was announced.

The battle lines are forming on both sides of the Atlantic. In Paris, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin backed Vestager’s view that Apple’s Irish tax arrangements amounted to abnormal state aid. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel also supported the Commission on Tuesday. However, Britain,  which voted in June to leave the EU,  has stayed out of the row, saying it is an issue for the Irish government, Apple and the Commission.

The technology giant has been operating in Ireland since the eighties and expected to go ahead with plans for expansion in Cork.Cook promised to boost tax payments by repatriating billions of dollars in global profits to the United States next year. “I think that Apple was targeted here,” he said. “And I think that (anti-U.S. sentiment) is one reason why we could have been targeted … I think it’s a desire to reallocate taxes that should be paid in the U.S. to the EU.” that (anti-U.S. sentiment) is one reason why we could have been targeted … I think it’s a desire to reallocate taxes that should be paid in the U.S. to the EU.”

Apple was found to hold over $181 billion ($238 billion Cdn) in accumulated profits offshore, more than any U.S. company, in a study distributed a year ago by two left -leaning nonprofit groups, a policy critics say is intended to abstain from paying U.S. charges. But, Cook said part of the company 2014 tax bill would be paid one year from now when the company repatriates offshore benefits to the United States