Apple must pay billions in unpaid taxes Ireland after losing a decade-long legal battle in the EU’s top court.
It’s found the company owes the Irish Government €13 billion ($AU21 billion) in tax.
The tech giant was accused of paying less than 1% tax on its European profits due to an illegal tax deal with Ireland — dating back more than 30 years.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that Apple must now pay the correct amount of taxes, plus interest.
Here’s the latest.
Commission
In 2016, the European Union (EU) accused Apple of striking an illegal deal with Ireland, allowing the company to pay minimal taxes from 1991 to 2014.
Apple housed its European headquarters in Ireland.
The Commission found that Apple’s effective corporate tax rate – the percentage of its income a company pays in taxes – on European profits fell from 1% in 2003 to 0.005% in 2014.
Apple disputes these figures.
At the time, Apple CEO Tim Cook denounced the findings as “total political crap” and said that Ireland was being “picked on” by the Commission.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Commissioner Margrethe Vestager as a “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.”
Apple and Ireland appealed the decision in 2019.
In 2020, a lower EU court cancelled the 2016 decision, ruling it had not sufficiently established that the Irish tax rulings gave Apple a competitive advantage.
The European Court of Justice
This week, the ECJ overturned the lower court’s decision, and reinstated the Commission’s initial order from 2016.
Vestager said: “Today is a big win for European citizens and for tax justice. The Court of Justice confirms that Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland now has to recover”.
Response
The Irish Government said the country “does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies” but that the case revolved around “an issue that is now of historical relevance only”.
An Apple spokesperson told media the case had “never been about how much tax we pay but which government we are required to pay it to.”
They added: “We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal.”
