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EU slams Apple with $14.5-bn ‘Irish tax’
BRUSSELS: The European Union on Tuesday ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes in Ireland, saying deals allowing the US tech
BRUSSELS: The European Union on Tuesday ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes in Ireland, saying deals allowing the US tech giant to pay almost no tax were illegal.
In the latest in a series of rulings that has angered Washington, Brussels said the world’s most valuable company avoided tax bills on virtually all its profits in the block under its arrangements with Dublin.
Apple said “we will appeal and we are confident the decision will be overturned.”
“It will have a profound and harmful effect on investment and job creation in Europe,” the company added.
Ireland has been seeking to attract multinationals by offering extremely favourable tax conditions, known as sweetheart deals, but EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple broke EU laws on state aid. “Member states cannot give unfair tax benefits to selected companies,” Vestager said. “This is not a penalty, this is unpaid taxes to be paid.”
The tax repayment order is by far the largest in EU history.
Apple has had a base at the southern city of Cork since 1980 and employs 5,000 people in Ireland, through which it routes its international sales, avoiding billions in corporation taxes.
But Vestager said that Apple’s “so-called head office in Ireland only existed on paper.”
Apple as a result paid an effective corporate tax rate of 0.005% on its European profits in 2014 — equivalent to 50 euros for every million, Vestager added.
