The Rocky Road to Globalization: \u00a0Tax codes vary widely from country to country. \u00a0International businesses are faced with a conundrum: In order to compete they must level their tax burden across the globe. \u00a0This has led to the location of all American companies like Caterpillar and Starbucks in Switzerland. \u00a0Luxembourg has been an attractive host to international companies. McDonalds and Fiat are now getting the heat.
\nLuxembourg is appealing a European Union decision that it made illegal fiscal deals with a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit, vowing to show that the bloc\u2019s antitrust regulator failed to establish any illegal state aid.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first challenge to reach the EU courts since the European Commission\u2019s precedent-setting decisions in October that the Italian carmaker and Starbucks Corp. benefited from favorable tax deals by Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Each company was ordered to pay as much as 30 million euros ($32.8 million) in back taxes.<\/p>\n
The European Commission \u201cused unprecedented criteria\u201d for its decision that a tax ruling for Fiat in Luxembourg violated state aid rules and put \u201cinto jeopardy the principle of legal certainty,\u201d the nation\u2019s finance ministry said in an e-mailed statement Friday. \u201cThe commission has not established in any way that Fiat received selective advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Grand-Duchy\u2019s decision to appeal comes a day after the Brussels-based watchdog opened a probe into whether McDonald\u2019s Corp. unfairly exploited a fiscal deal with Luxembourg to avoid tax on hundreds of millions of euros in profits for more than half a decade. The McDonald\u2019s case is the third to focus on Luxembourg, adding to the Fiat case and an ongoing probe into tax rulings obtained by Amazon.com Inc.<\/p>\n
Luxembourg and the fiscal deals that international companies have received over the years there came out into the open last year, when hundreds of documents were leaked showing that more than 340 companies such as PepsiCo Inc., Ikea Group and FedEx Corp. transferred profits to the country through tax arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of EU member states use tax rulings to provide legal certainty for the taxpayer,\u201d the finance ministry said, adding it \u201cis strongly committed to tax transparency and the fight against harmful tax avoidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rocky Road to Globalization: \u00a0Tax codes vary widely from country to country. \u00a0International businesses are faced with a conundrum: In order to compete they must level their tax burden across the globe. \u00a0This has led to the location of … Continue reading ![\"Luxembourg\"](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Luxembourg-300x176.jpg\")
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