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 The European Union's competition watchdog is looking at whether a
number of countries' benign tax regimes for multinational companies,
which helps to attract investment and jobs that might otherwise go
elsewhere, represents unfair state aid.
A U.S. Senate investigation into Apple's tax affairs in 2013 showed
how Apple had used Irish-registered companies that were tax resident
in no country to shelter tens of billions of dollars in profit from
tax.
Theoretically, if the Commission ruled the tax treatment constituted
state aid, Apple, the largest company in the world by market
capitalization, could be forced to repay billions of dollars in tax
savings.
 However, some tax lawyers said they doubted the Commission could
enforce such a ruling and that it is more likely Ireland would
simply be forced to change its light-touch approach to taxing
multinationals, which other European countries say robs them of tax
revenues.
Apple has denied receiving any selective tax treatment from the
Irish authorities and the Irish government reiterated on Monday that
it is confident it had not breached state aid rules and said it had
issued a formal response to the Commission this month to address
concerns and misunderstandings.
Antoine Colombani, spokesman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin
Almunia, said the Commission would publish a non-confidential
version of its decision to open the investigation on Tuesday.
Formal legal publication will follow a few weeks later in the
Official Journal of the European Union and interested parties will
then have a month to submit their comments.
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These responses will be analyzed by the Commission in the context of
the continuing investigation, Colombani said.
The Commission announced in June that it was investigating Ireland,
the Netherlands and Luxembourg over deals they have cut with Apple,
Starbucks and Fiat.
Apple has operated almost tax-free in Ireland since 1980, thanks to
tax holidays and tax deals given by the government, executives have
said.
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Additional reporting by Tom Bergin;
Editing by David Goodman)
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