In a US Stock Exchange filing, Apple has warned that it could face a significant additional tax bill if the European Commission finds against it in its current investigation into its tax payments in Ireland.
It says that the EU could recover taxes dating back over 10 years - this is the first filing from the company that mentions potential costs relating to the examination of these tax arrangements.
The investigation was launched during last summer, it relates to potential “selective” tax advantages given to Apple through deals agreed in 1991 and 2007.
Both Apple and the Irish Government have argued that the European Commission's case in weak - a ruling could be delivered during the current quarter.
______________________________________________________________
Ulster Bank – owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland – has announced first quarter operating profits of £51m (€69m). This compares with operating profits of €10m in the same period last year.
Total income was £11m lower during quarter at £190m.
The bank reports a 55 percent increase in mortgage drawdowns compared to last year and has increased lending to SME and corporate customers by close to one third.
It was announced during the week that current Chief Executive Jim Browne, who told the Oireachtas Finance Committee yesterday that the bank would not be cutting its variable mortgage rate, will soon leave the bank to head up another RBS subsidiary in the UK.
______________________________________________________________
IAG, the group that owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, has announced operating profits of €25m for the three months to the end of March, its first ever such profit for this period which is traditionally loss-making for airlines.
The Group, headed by Dubliner Willie Walsh, said there was a strong improvement at Group level – lower oil prices pushed fuel costs 11 percent lower, and there was what IAG calls “a consistent positive performance in our key North American market.”
The North Atlantic route is one of the key objectives for IAG in bidding for Aer Lingus, about which the trading statement says nothing. A cabinet decision on the IAG bid may still be a number of weeks away according to Transport Minister, Paschal Donohoe.
______________________________________________________________
Jean-Claude Trichet will take questions from TDs today about Ireland's bailout. He is not attending the Banking Inquiry - so instead members are attending a lecture he's delivering in Dublin.
Initially Jean-Claude Trichet wasn't going to engage with the banking inquiry, saying the ECB doesn't answer to national parliaments - and only takes questions from MEPs.
However, a compromise was reached where Trichet will take questions, on the record - but not in a formal inquiry setting in Leinster House.
He's in Dublin today giving a lecture hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs and will take questions from the audience.
It just so happens that 11 members of the audience are the 11 members of the Banking Inquiry.
______________________________________________________________
Exports by Irish companies increased by 10 percent last year to the record value of €18.6bn, according to new figures released by Enterprise Ireland.
The UK is still the primary market for Irish exporters, we sold goods and services worth €6.8bn to Britain during the year, this represents an increase of 9 percent.
Irish exports to US and Canada were worth €2.3bn - an increase of 16 percent.
Exports account for 51 percent of the sales made by companies supported by Enterprise Ireland.
______________________________________________________________
The US Federal Reserve has kept interest rates at their historic low of 0.25 percent - and signalled that a rate hike will not come until after the summer.
It has pointed to weaknesses across the economy, and particularly in the US labour market.
The performance of the US economy has been sluggish during the first quarter of 2015 - the annualised growth rate was just 0.2 percent.
