Denmark’s Vestager tells Fiat and Starbucks to pay
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Published: 21 Oct, 2015 CET.
Updated: Wed 21 Oct 2015 13:57 CET
The EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said on Wednesday that the financial units of Italian car maker Fiat and US coffee chain Starbucks must each repay 20 to 30 million euros in back taxes.
The European Commission said that Fiat and Starbucks will be hit with large back taxes bills after the companies were granted selective tax advantages in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The ruling follows an investigation which got underway in June last year as part of a series of probes against top companies announced in the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal, which revealed that some of the world’s biggest companies had negotiated lower tax rates in secret pacts with Luxembourg.
See also: EU commissioner to use LuxLeaks docs
"Tax rulings that artificially reduce a company's tax burden are not in line with EU state aid rules,” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said in a statement.
“They are illegal. I hope that, with today's decisions, this message will be heard by member state governments and companies alike. All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax,” Vestager added.
Lux to recover € 20-30 mill from Fiat FT, NL to recover € 20-30 mill from Starbucks Manufacturing - unpaid taxes due to illegal state aid.
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) October 21, 2015
Vestager has been steadily making a name for herself as EU’s hard-nosed antitrust chief, having already taken on Google and Russian oil giant Gazprom. The Dane assumed her influential position last October after serving as Denmark’s economy minister under PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
See also: Vestager wows at EU Commission hearing
In her latest action, Vestager and the EU Commission ordered Luxembourg and the Netherlands to collect €20-€30 million in unpaid taxes from Fiat Finance and Trade and Starbucks, respectively, in order to remove the unfair competitive advantage they have enjoyed and to restore equal treatment with other companies in similar situations.
It has been left up to the member states’ tax authorities to establish the exact amount.
Comments
See Also
The European Commission said that Fiat and Starbucks will be hit with large back taxes bills after the companies were granted selective tax advantages in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The ruling follows an investigation which got underway in June last year as part of a series of probes against top companies announced in the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal, which revealed that some of the world’s biggest companies had negotiated lower tax rates in secret pacts with Luxembourg.
See also: EU commissioner to use LuxLeaks docs
"Tax rulings that artificially reduce a company's tax burden are not in line with EU state aid rules,” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said in a statement.
“They are illegal. I hope that, with today's decisions, this message will be heard by member state governments and companies alike. All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax,” Vestager added.
Lux to recover € 20-30 mill from Fiat FT, NL to recover € 20-30 mill from Starbucks Manufacturing - unpaid taxes due to illegal state aid.
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) October 21, 2015
Vestager has been steadily making a name for herself as EU’s hard-nosed antitrust chief, having already taken on Google and Russian oil giant Gazprom. The Dane assumed her influential position last October after serving as Denmark’s economy minister under PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
See also: Vestager wows at EU Commission hearing
In her latest action, Vestager and the EU Commission ordered Luxembourg and the Netherlands to collect €20-€30 million in unpaid taxes from Fiat Finance and Trade and Starbucks, respectively, in order to remove the unfair competitive advantage they have enjoyed and to restore equal treatment with other companies in similar situations.
It has been left up to the member states’ tax authorities to establish the exact amount.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.