The FT reports today that the US administration is very upset with the EU, specifically with the Commission, for its attempts to get Apple to cough up billions of euros in unpaid taxes. The US Treasury is cited as being particularly worried that the Apple case “sets an undesirable precedent that could lead to other tax authorities . . . [seeking] large and punitive retroactive recoveries from both US and EU companies”.

As a character in a beloved BBC sit-com of my youth was fond of saying, dead-pan: Oh dear. What a pity. Never mind.

Without delving too deeply into the specifics of the case, a number of crucial issues are raised by this controversy, not just in the narrow area of taxation but for the European integeration process more generally. [Read more…]