EU orders Apple to pay-up €13bn of unpaid tax and interest

The European Commission has concluded that Ireland broke EU state aid rules by granting undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to US tech giant Apple and has ordered it to recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from the tech giant for the years 2003-14 of up to €13 billion, plus interest.

The standard rate of Irish corporate tax is 12.5 per cent. The Commissions’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.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, stressed in response to press questions: “This is not a penalty - this is unpaid taxes to be paid.”