DUBLIN: the end of August the European Commission—the EU’s executive body—ordered U.S. technology giant Apple to pay the Irish government €13bn for a decade’s worth of back taxes, a sum equivalent to all of the country’s healthcare budget, or two-thirds of its annual social welfare bill.
Unsurprisingly, Apple does not want to pay (though with estimated cash reserves of U.S.$200bn it can easily afford to). More surprisingly—the Irish government doesn’t want the money anyway.
As Apple CEO Tim Cook duly noted: “We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.”
Apple had been in the Commission’s sights even before June 2014, when it launched its investigation into whether Ireland’s tax treatment of the company was effectively tantamount to state aid, which is illegal under EU rules. On 30 August the Commission confirmed that it was.
