MPs urge Theresa May to take advantage of the EU's 'Mugabe-like' Apple tax ruling by attracting US tech giants to Britain after Brexit

  • EU ordered Apple to pay back £11bn in tax to Ireland over 'sweetheart deal'
  • Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg tells MailOnline that Britain can offer firms like Apple 'certainty' after Brexit
  • Ukip MP Douglas Carswell says UK can benefit by offering 'low, fair taxation' when we leave the EU
  • Silicon Valley firms says they'll 're-evaluate their relationship with Europe' 

MPs urged Theresa May to take advantage of the EU's controversial ruling to order Apple to pay back £11billion in tax to Ireland by attracting the tech giant to invest in the UK after Brexit. 

They joined Silicon Valley firms in venting their fury against the EU for the decision, which accused Apple of unduly benefiting from tax breaks in Ireland over the last two decades. 

The move will lead many tech firms to 're-evaluate their relationship with Europe,' one Silicon Valley company said. 

And British MPs want Britain to benefit by offering 'low, fair taxation' to firms such as Apple when it leaves the EU. 

Jacob Rees Mogg, Tory MP and member of the influential Treasury select committee, told MailOnline that the UK could win lucrative investment by offering multinationals 'certainty' after cutting ties with Brussels.

Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg
Ukip MP Douglas Carswell

Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg (left) and Ukip MP Douglas Carswell (right) told MailOnline that Theresa May should make a bold offer to tech firms such as Apple to invest in the UK after the EU's controversial ruling to order the iPhone giant to pay back £11billion in tax to Ireland

Big bill: Apple, which has a base in Cork, pictured, must repay £11billion ($14.5bn) in unpaid tax because the EU says its sweetheart tax deal with Ireland amounted to state aid

Apple, which has a base in Cork, pictured, must repay £11billion ($14.5bn) in unpaid tax because the EU says its sweetheart tax deal with Ireland amounted to state aid

'We'll be able to collect tax from who we want rather than who the EU tells us to,' he said. 

'What we can do is give people certainty, which is what businesses want, because if we did a deal with a multinational that we really, really wanted to come to the UK, nobody could overall us and the company would know that this is the law.

'Whereas Poor Ireland made this deal in good faith with Apple years ago and now discovers that they're not in charge of their own tax affairs.' 

The US Treasury has made no secret of its disapproval of European investigations into Apple's taxes. Even before the EU Commission's ruling was announced it released a 25-page report on last week, accusing Brussels of undermining the international tax system by straying away from international norms.

The Treasury also decried the commission's 'retroactive' investigations, saying such investigations would harm tax certainty and set an undesirable precedent in other countries. 

APPLE CUTS IN EUROPE COULD BE DEVASTATING 

More than 22,000 people in Europe are employed directly by Apple and around 1.4million more rely on them for money, the tech giant claims.

Parts for its phones, tablets, computers and watches are put together with the help of 4,700 suppliers based in 23 countries.

More than 6,500 people in Britain are employed directly by Apple - the highest number in the EU - followed by 5,500 each in Germany and Ireland.

In Europe there are more than 100 official Apple stores employing an average of 100 people each and there are 600 smaller Apple Premium Resellers across Europe that offer the complete range of Apple products.

Away from direct sales Apple also has more than one million registered app developers making money through the App Store.

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Experts believe that a post-Brexit Britain - with an economy free from Brussels - could be able to attract companies such as Apple with its own tax deals.

After the EU yesterday ruled its 'sweetheart deal' with Ireland amounted to illegal state aid, Apple threatened to cut EU jobs and investment. 

The £11billion it has been ordered to pay back in back tax is the biggest tax bill ever imposed outside the US.  

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said the ruling would not look out of place in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. 

He told MailOnline: 'The EU has not only failed to produce its equivalent of Apple, or Google or Facebook or any of the other digital giants but it's parasiting off them by basically using them as a cash cow for taxes.

'What we should do is when we leave is to offer these businesses low, fair taxation.

'That doesn't mean we won't tax them – we will – but it will be low and it won't be arbitrary. 

'This is what's outrageous about the EU's position. It is a totally arbitrary, retrospective decision. It's the sort of decision you'd expect to find a medieval monarch making – 'by the way you owe all this money'.'

He added: 'It's no way to attract business. This is one of the wonderful things about leaving the EU – it means we're going to have to get our own tax house in order.

'For decades we've had muppets like George Osborne and Gordon Brown running it and the tax system has become hideously complex.

'If we leave, we're going to have to make it more attractive by simplifying it. 

'You can't retrospectively, arbitrarily impose tax in the way they've done it. You would expect Robert Mugabe's government to behave like this.' 

The European Commission's three-year investigation into Apple's sweetheart deal with Ireland concluded today with a damning report which said the tech giant paid as little as 0.005 per cent tax by funnelling its non-US profits through its Irish headquarters - which has no staff or premises - then on to its $178billion (£120bn) offshore fund. 

Experts agreed that the ruling could lead Apple to move to Britain.  

Neil Wilson, markets analyst at ETX Capital, said: 'The European Commission seems to be treading very close to interfering with the tax rules of member states, effectively telling Ireland how much tax it ought to levy. It's also increasingly becoming a supra-national tax judge.

'Britain could benefit. If Ireland cannot offer sweetheart deals within the EU, the City of London can perhaps offer something more appealing outside the bloc.' 

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager (pictured) unveiled a 130-page report into Apple's Irish tax affairs yesterday and said it allowed Apple to pay as little as 0.005% tax

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager (pictured) unveiled a 130-page report into Apple's Irish tax affairs yesterday and said it allowed Apple to pay as little as 0.005% tax

Silicon Valley firms also signalled Britain could be a winner from the EU's landmark ruling yesterday as they review their position in EU member states. 

Om Malik, from venture capital firm True Ventures, told the Guardian: 'Instead of saying 'going forward, this won't be allowed' – which seems more fair – the EU is trying to change the rules of the game retroactively. It makes little sense to me. 

'If they change the rules going forward, that's their prerogative. These companies have been complying with the Irish rules. Now a lot of them will have to re-evaluate their relationships with Europe.' 

Asked whether the Prime Minister believed the Commission decision amounted to good news for the UK post-Brexit, as it would make EU states less able to use competitive tax policies to attract inward investment, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'In terms of offering a low-tax environment, the UK already does that.

'Our Corporation Tax is one of the lowest in the world. We are committed to making the trading condition for companies in Britain as positive for them as it can be as long as it's positive for the country as a whole.'

Asked whether the Government would like to see Apple relocate in the UK post-Brexit, a No 10 spokesman added: 'The narrative from the Government has been well set out. Britain is open for business, we would welcome any company wishing to invest in Britain.'

He stressed that all companies registered in the UK are expected to 'pay the tax they owe'. 

But as the European Commission stepped up its crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, its president Jean Claude Juncker came under further pressure over the 'sweetheart' tax deals his Luxembourg government struck with large multinationals including McDonald's, Amazon and Starbucks during his spell as the country's Prime Minister.  

But the US Treasury has warned Brussels not to pursue American companies over tax avoidance amid warnings that McDonald's, Google and Amazon could be next.