Stefan Mileschin

The European Commission has announced that it will launch a formal investigation on into Apple somewhat dodgy tax scheme.

The news follows a statement from the EU's competition authority last year that it was looking into corporate tax arrangements in several member states and had requested information from Ireland. Apple is widely seen as low hanging fruit as it, along with Google, have the most public relationship with Ireland.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny declined to comment on whether the Commission might be preparing to open an investigation but said he was confident of the legality of Ireland's tax system.

"We believe that our legislation ... is very strong and ethically implemented and we will defend that very robustly," Kenny told journalists in Dublin.

Apple had cut billions from its tax bill by declaring companies registered in the Irish city of Cork as not tax resident in any country.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee, dubbed the Apple structure represented "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance."

http://news.techeye.net/business/app...n-eu-tax-probe