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Trouble from one tax man, a possible holiday from Kan Ray and this is news from Maco-S-Kan.

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Putting Apple and Tech News in focus EY E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E

News Stand now. The words interesting and tax news are not often found in the

same sentence. The Wednesday did bring some interesting tax news for Apple. A Bloomberg piece says tax breaks for Apple Inc,

Starbucks Corporation, and Fiat Finance and Trade S.A. in three European Union

countries are under investigation by EU competition regulators and a

clamp down on special treatment for companies.

According to an emailed statement from the EU regulators are looking into whether the tax deals in Ireland,

the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are illegal state aid.

Thing is though it doesn't sound certain that special deals have been made.

Rather Apple and other companies appear to have done some aggressive tax planning

which the EU says should be stopped too.

Seriously.

Joaquin Almunia, the EU's competition commissioner said at a press conference,

we need to fight against aggressive tax planning.

That stance is understandable by the EU's accounting.

Such aggressive tax planning costs the EU about 1 trillion euros a year, or roughly 1.4 trillion dollars annually.

The regulators hope is that they'll be able to get some of that money back retroactively

though they concede it's still too soon to anticipate possible

recovery even if the tax situations turn out to be illegal and that's a big if its part, Apple said in an emailed statement,

...