I was alerted by Dr Tom O’Shea to the fact that Ireland is appealing the General Court’s decision in the Fiat tax ruling case (Case C-898/19 P [2020] OJ C 54/41). By way of background, the General Court agreed with the European Commission’s assessment that Fiat had been granted unlawful State aid by the Luxembourg tax authority.

It might seem strange to those looking in from outside that the appeal is being taken up, not by the country concerned, but rather by a separate country. What interest does Ireland have in cases taken against another country which, at least on the surface, appears happy to comply with the judgment? Of course, Ireland’s primary interest lies in respect of its own case against the European Commission in respect of the purported unlawful aid granted to Apple by the Irish Revenue Commissioners. This in turns brings us to an interesting question – how is it politically feasible in Ireland that the country is engaged in an appeal against an assessment that it is due €13billion euro, and so much so that it is now litigating cases on behalf of other countries? Considering the results of the most recent general election in Ireland, it certainly seems odd that the country continues to ask that it not receive tax revenues from a large multinational. In an article published a few years ago in the Bulletin for International Taxation, I tried to answer this question. The abstract for the article reads as follows:

“In this article, the author explores accusations levelled at the revenue authorities of Ireland and the United Kingdom in response to their treatment of multinationals, analyses the statutory scheme underpinning the powers of those revenue authorities and provides a preliminary proposition as to why subsequent developments have been so distinct.”

It is available officially here – though I can send individual copies to those without access to the IBFD journals (email me at: stephen.daly@kcl.ac.uk)