White House fears U.S. taxpayers will pay for Apple tax bill

The White House today said it was worried that American taxpayers would pay for the European Union's decision to force Apple to pay more than $14 billion in back taxes.

"It's also possible that the kinds of payments that are contemplated by the EU decision today, at the end of the day, are merely a transfer of revenue from U.S. taxpayers to the EU," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest in a Tuesday press briefing. "That's the crux of our concerns about this [unilateral] approach."

If Apple was required to pay billions in back taxes to Ireland, it could then deduct those payments from what it owes to the IRS, either retroactively or in future returns. Those deductions, in turn, would reduce Apple's tax bill to the U.S. government, lowering the amount collected by the IRS.

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