White House ‘concerned’, says EU tax penalty on Apple may hit US taxpayers

The White House said Tuesday it was concerned about a European Commission order for Apple to pay billions in unpaid taxes to Ireland because it seemed to undermine joint U.S.-EU progress on creating a more fair international tax system.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was possible the EU order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes could be unfair to U.S. taxpayers because Apple might be able to claim it in the United States as a tax deduction.

“We are concerned about a unilateral approach … that threaten to undermine progress that we have made collaboratively with the Europeans to make the international taxation system fair,” Earnest told a briefing.

Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will travel to Europe in mid-September to try to push forward a free trade pact with the EU that some European officials have said is all but dead, the White House said on Tuesday.

“I anticipate that when he travels to Europe in mid-September that they’ll be engaged in substantive discussions and hopefully will be able to make some additional progress,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Source: Reuters