Luxembourg doesn’t want to acquiesce to the European Commission’s demands to collect $295 million in back taxes, according to a Business Insider report published Friday.
The European Union governing body ruled in early October that Luxemborg was illicitly safeguarding Amazon from taxes that are usually exacted on such massive companies. Luxembourg, though, is officially challenging that decision as of Friday, reports BI, which goes off a translation from a statement from the country’s finance ministry.
“This appeal seeks to obtain legal certainty, and does not put into question Luxembourg’s strong commitment to tax transparency and the fight against harmful tax practices,” reads the statement, according to BI.
Amazon, a perpetually-growing tech conglomerate involved in multiple industries, reportedly has around 1,500 employees in Luxembourg, which is large relative to the small population of the country. In other words, Luxembourg, which usually serves as a tax haven for large corporations, doesn’t want to ruffle Amazon’s feathers.
The EU has battled with associated countries before in order to retrieve certain fees. (RELATED: Google Is Lawyering Up In Europe After Record Fines)
The European Commission announced in October that it plans on taking Ireland to court because the nation’s government failed to collect roughly 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion USD) from a different U.S. company, Apple.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a press conference at the time that “the Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years.”
Ireland, in response, defended its decision and corporate tax rate. Then-Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan told the press when the taxes were originally urged to be paid that “I disagree profoundly with the Commission’s decision,” reports The Wall Street Journal, and added that the country intends “to defend the integrity of our tax system.”
Ireland said it needs more time to collect such a large amount of money, while Apple says it’s appealing the decision.
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