DUBLIN: The Irish government chose Bank of New York Mellon as custodian while the money is held in escrow pending an appeal by Apple and Ireland against a European Union tax ruling, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The government hasn’t yet named an investment manager for the funds.
Bank of New York and the Irish National Treasury Management Agency, which is managing the selection process, declined to comment.
Ireland is in the “final days” of a cooling-off period for “elements of how the escrow account will be managed,” Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday. “In the next few weeks I think you’ll see all the elements of the procurement process coming to an end.”
In a 2016 order that reverberated across the Atlantic, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, slapped Apple with a tax bill of as much as 13 billion euros, saying Ireland had granted unfair deals that reduced the company’s effective corporate tax rate.
The Brussels-based commission has referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice. The money, which was initially due by Jan. 3, 2017, will be collected in the second quarter of this year, the Irish government said.
