Tech

Ireland slams Apple with $14.5bn penalty for tax evasion

Published

8 years ago

August 31, 2016

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In a new ruling handed down recently, Apple was given a $14.5 billion bill for back taxes by the European Commission, related to its business in Europe and Ireland.

Apple’s tax situation, including the hundreds of billions in cash held offshore, has always been a hot topic for the company.

European Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Member States cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years.

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“In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 per cent in 2014.” She added.

Following an in-depth state aid investigation launched in June 2014, the European Commission has concluded that two tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple have substantially and artificially lowered the tax paid by Apple in Ireland since 1991.

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