WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, a European Union court overturned a 2016 decision that found that Apple had received illegal tax breaks from Ireland.  Wednesday’s decision from the EU’s second-highest court nullified the earlier ruling, which would have required Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland.  

Clark Gascoigne, interim executive director of the FACT Coalition, issued the following statement:

“Tax avoidance results in a loss of $500 billion for taxpayers globally each year — and the country facing the largest revenue loss is the United States, according to the Tax Justice Network.  While we’re disappointed in today’s ruling, it underscores the fact that many of these tax dodging shenanigans are, in fact, legal.  Our laws are flawed — they’re riddled with loopholes — and enforcing a broken framework cannot ultimately fix this problem.

“Ending multinational tax avoidance will require changing our laws and regulations  to close the loopholes that companies like Apple exploit.  That begins with equalizing the tax rates on foreign and domestic profits, closing incentives to reincorporate in tax havens, and introducing transparency measures to ensure that companies play by the rules.”

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