The United Kingdom's tax scheme is partly justified, but it gave illegal tax advantage to some multinational companies, the European Commission said Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2019) The United Kingdom's tax scheme is partly justified, but it gave illegal tax advantage to some multinational companies, the European Commission said Tuesday.
"The European Commission has found that a UK tax scheme is partly justified and does not constitute State aid, insofar as it ensures the proper functioning and effectiveness of the relevant tax rule. However, the Commission found that the scheme unduly exempted certain multinational groups from these UK rules targeting tax avoidance. This is illegal under EU State aid rules," the commission said in a press release.
The United Kingdom is now expected to get back "the illegal state aid" from the companies that benefited from it.
The commission has made several similar rulings on tax schemes of other EU countries. Luxembourg recovered 23.1 million euros, or $25.8 million, from Fiat, the Netherlands took back 25.7 million Euros from Starbucks. In a highly publicized case, Apple had to return 14.3 billion euros to Ireland. Dublin disagreed with the commission's assessment at the time and maintained that Apple did not receive any preferential treatment.
