Europe Demands Apple To Pay $14 Billion

This ruling handed down after a 2-year investigation would rebuff the efforts of the United States to persuade the EC to drop its interest amid warnings about retaliation from Washington. Europe has been looking into the company’s tax deals with Ireland, according to which Apple paid very little tax on income earned in EU.

The European Commission launched a formal inquiry 2 years ago after publishing preliminary findings that suggested involvement of state aid in deals between Apple and Ireland in 1991 and 2007, which was incompatible with the EU’s internal market. However, the alleged parties to the deal have denied its very existence with Apple calling the investigation “political crap” and promising to appeal against a ruling that the company received state aid.

The financial experts estimated that if the European Union requires Apple to retroactively pay the Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5% on the pre-tax profits it collected via the country, it would amount to about $19bn. At the same time, Irish sources expect the bill to be much smaller, just in the hundreds of millions.

Three years ago, a US Senate investigation found that the tech giant paid little or no tax on profits of at least $74bn over 4 years, exploiting the gaps in the Irish and American tax code. However, the investigation found no evidence of illegal activity at the time, while both Apple and Ireland denied any wrongdoing.

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