EU orders Apple to pay up to 13 billion euros tax to Ireland

The European Commission has ordered Ireland to recoup 13 billion euro from tech giant Apple over a sweetheart tax deal. A three-year investigation by Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager found the arrangements dating back to the early 1990s were illegal under state aid rules. She said it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses - one per cent on its European profits in 2003 and 0.0005 per cent in 2014. Ireland's tax inspectors have been told to recover the unpaid billions. "Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies - this is illegal under EU state aid rules," the commissioner said. "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." Ms Vestager found two tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple which she said substantially and artificially lowered the tax paid by the multinational maker of iPhones and iPads. She said the arrangements to establish the taxable profits for two Irish incorporated companies of the Apple group - Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe - did not correspond to...

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