The Transatlantic Squabble Over Apple's Taxes

The U.S. Treasury thinks it's bad enough that companies such as Apple park piles of cash overseas to avoid paying tax. What's worse is when foreign authorities change the rules that attracted the money in the first place, and tax those holdings for themselves.

In effect, the European Commission is threatening to do just that. Apple and other U.S. companies could soon be hit with retrospective demands for tax running into the billions of dollars. This week the Barack Obama administration objected, accusing the commission of, among other things, exceeding its authority and violating the norms of international tax policy.