EU says Apple must pay up to 13B euros in back taxes
BRUSSELS (AP) — Apple will have to pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest in back taxes to Ireland after the European Union found today the U.S. technology giant received illegal tax benefits over 11 years.
The ruling is the biggest salvo in the EU executive Commission's battle to have multinationals pay their fair share in the region. The EU alleges that many big companies struck deals with EU countries to pay unusually low tax in exchange for basing their EU operations there.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that a three-year investigation found Ireland granted such lavish tax breaks to Apple that the multinational's effective corporate tax rate on its European profits dropped from 1 percent in 2003 to a mere 0.005 percent in 2014.
That last tax rate meant that for each million euros in profits, Apple paid just 50 euros in taxes, Vestager told a news conference.