E.U. antitrust regulators ordered Apple on Tuesday to pay up to €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in taxes to the Irish government after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid.
The massive sum, some 40 times bigger than the previous known demand by the European Commission to a company in such a case, could be reduced, the E.U. executive said in a statement, if other countries sought more tax themselves from the U.S. tech giant.
Apple, which with Ireland, has already said it will appeal the decision, paid a tax rate on European profits of between 0.005 and 1 per cent, the Commission said.
Reacting to the ruling, Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he disagreed profoundly with the European Commission's verdict.
Ireland's Finance Ministry said its position remained that the full amount of tax was paid and no state aid was provided. Ireland did not give favourable tax treatment to Apple and does not do deals with taxpayers, it added.
It also said the disputed tax opinions in the Apple case no longer applied and that the decision had no effect on Ireland's 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate or on any other company with operations in the country.
“I disagree profoundly with the Commission,” Mr. Noonan said in a statement on Tuesday. “The decision leaves me with no choice but to seek Cabinet approval to appeal. This is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of E.U. state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation.”
