EU Orders Apple To Pay Ireland 11b Pounds In “Back Taxes”

Posted by African Examiner Featured, IT & Telecoms, Latest Headlines Tuesday, August 30th, 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The European Commission (EU) has ruled that Ireland should recover up to €13bn (£11bn) from the US giant Apple in back taxes.

The Commission handed down the ruling after concluding its three years investigation. It held that Irish’s tax benefits were illegal.

EU held that Ireland enabled Apple to pay substantially less than other businesses, thereby, paying a corporate tax rate of no more than 1 per cent.

EU’s Commissioner Margrethe Vestager declared “Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules”.

She added “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”.

The standard rate of Irish corporate tax is reportedly put at 12.5 per cent. But in contrast, EU’s investigation concluded that Apple had effectively paid 1 per cent tax on its European profits in 2003 and about 0.005 per cent in 2014.

Ms Vestager contended that the tax agreement reached between Ireland and Apple meant that the company’s taxable profits “did not correspond to economic reality”.

In the meantime, both Ireland and Apple have resented EU’s ruling – record penalty, therefore, have vowed to appeal against it.

According to Apple’s HSE department of Social Protection, the total of Ireland’s healthcare budget is 66 per cent of its social welfare bill; while 15 million iPhones amounts to 27 per cent of Apple’s 2015 profit.