A year after the European Commission claimed Apple received special tax treatment from Ireland an agreement has been made. The tech company has to pay a record-breaking €13 billion, or about $16 billion, back to Ireland.
Led by Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission stated that Apple had ended up cutting its tax bill by billions between 2003 and 2014 thanks to Ireland.
Apple will make a large initial transfer next month and then will pay in about €1bn in each of multiple installments through September. The deal comes following an agreement signed on Tuesday in Dublin by Apple and Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe.
“This is a very, very significant development now in terms of dealing with this issue,” Mr Donohoe told reporters in Dublin. “This is the largest recovery fund of its kind ever to be established and, due to the complexity of such, together with our duty to comply with EU procurement rules, it has taken some time to get to this point.”
According to the Irish minister, the money will be held by an escrow account. Additional interest is set to be calculated following the collection of the first €13 billion.
In a previous statement, Apple vowed that not only would they cooperate with Ireland regarding the recovery process but that they remained confident the decision would be overturned. Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about the unique predicament the company finds itself in via a letter back in 2016.
“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,” the Apple CEO said.
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