EU to rule on Apple tax deals this year

"We don't have a date, but our expectation is it will be done this side of Christmas."

Apple is one of several multinational companies the EU is investigating to see whether their sweetheart deals gave them an illegal advantage over other companies.

EU antitrust regulators concluded two similar cases last month, ruling that Starbucks and Fiat benefited from illegal state aid in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and must repay tens of millions of euros to the respective national budgets.

The companies and the EU countries involved in the scheme disputed the EU executive’s findings.

If Apple’s Irish tax scheme is deemed illegal by the Commission, the US company could end up paying millions of euros also.

Margrethe Vestager, EU commissioner in charge of antitrust inquiries said Monday in the European Parliament, she does not have a date yet for decisions on Apple or Amazon’s tax arrangement in Luxembourg.

She told lawmakers that last month’s decisions on Fiat and Starbucks sent a strong signal to national governments that they can’t use the tax system to hand out illegal state aid, however.

“This is the beginning of my work, not the end,” she said about the two concluded investigations.

“I will continue to open tax ruling cases if we have doubts that the rules are not followed as they should be,” the Danish commissioner added.

For his part, Noonan did not go into detail how Ireland will cope with the decision, saying only that the country will “deal with that when the announcement comes.”