EU appeals Apple ruling in $15b tax battle

The On the Move panel discuss the news that the EU is appealing the Apple ruling, putting the $15 billion tax battle back into play.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Let's also talk about Apple and a new court ruling in the European Union. They've actually appealed a ruling that happened in July that said Apple did not have to pay taxes, $15 billion dollars in taxes. The EU is appealing that, saying they do want them to pay taxes. So this is, and this is already, this tax battle has been going on for some years. So what happens now?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, basically the EU, the European Commission, which is basically the kind of watchdog for the European Union, they handle everything from these tax issues to antitrust, they are going to now go back to court and basically fight for Apple to pay up this $15 billion. And it's sitting in escrow, so it's not as though it's going to come out of Apple's coffers right away or right now. It's already set aside.

So if they win, hey, that's $15 billion that goes back into their coffers. But this is an ongoing issue where you have something like an Apple working in Ireland, they are accused of having this sweetheart deal where they don't have to pay as many taxes as they otherwise would in the EU. And so this is kind of where.

- I can hear them fine.

DAN HOWLEY: The deal has been going. I think it's going to continue to be an issue for multiple tech companies, not just Apple, by the way. We do like to talk about how US companies like Apple or Google or Amazon, are targeted frequently by the EU, but they do also like to point out that they hit European companies equally hard.

JULIE HYMAN: Thanks, Dan, it looks like investors today aren't that concerned about it. After all, it's not going to be resolved tomorrow. But the shares are up about 2%