A senior U.S. Treasury official will meet European Union antitrust officials investigating tax deals involving Apple and Amazon on Friday, the latest lobbying effort against a crackdown on U.S. firms.

The meeting comes a week after Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is expected to rule on his company's deal with Ireland early this year.

"Ditte Juul-Joergensen, Linsey McCallum and Gert-Jan Koopman will meet with Robert Stack, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury," Vestager's spokesman said in an email.

Juul-Joergensen and McCallum are members of Vestager's cabinet, while Koopman is the top civil servant at the European Commission in charge of the tax cases.

Last month Stack told a Senate committee that the EU executive seemed to be singling out U.S. companies and had no right to go after foreign profits held overseas by the firms.

All the companies have denied wrongdoing. Apple could face a hefty back tax bill as the EU investigation covers a period of up to 10 years.

Google could be the next EU target after the Scottish National Party complained to the Commission about its 130 million pound settlement with British tax authorities. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie