EU investigating Ikea tax benefits

The European Commission has launches an investigation into tax benefits granted by the Netherlands to furniture giant Ikea.

The commission will investigate two tax rulings by the Netherlands for Inter Ikea, one of the two groups that operate the Ikea business.

The commission "has concerns" that the Dutch rulings have given Ikea an unfair advantage against other companies, which is against EU competition rules.

The EU's executive arm alleges that the Netherlands has allowed Ikea to shift profits through different schemes to Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, where the money was not taxed.

"Member states cannot let selected companies pay less tax by allowing them to artificially shift their profits elsewhere," said Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner for competition.