Apple says it has paid $10.4B of $15.1B in back taxes to Ireland

Apple has so far made two payments of 4.5 billion euros (about $5.2 billion) into an escrow account for the 13 billion euros ($15.1 billion) in back taxes the European Commission has ordered it to pay Ireland, according to new regulatory filings.

"As of June 30, 2018, 4.5 billion euros of the recovery amount was funded into escrow. Subsequent to June 30, 2018, the company has funded an additional 4.5 billion euros of the recovery amount into escrow," Apple said in quarterly documents seen by Reuters.

Apple and the Irish government set up an escrow account rather that direct payments in anticipation of an appeal against the European Commission, which could begin this fall. The fight could stretch out for several years however with no guarantee of success, since the Commission has previously ruled against other multinational corporations accused of violating European tax rules.

In August 2016, the Commission ruled that Ireland had extended preferential tax deals to Apple for years, something considered illegal state aid under European law — aid offered to one company must be extended to others as well. The E.U. argued that the Irish government had even reverse-engineered rules to appease Apple.

The iPhone maker has funneled large sums of international revenue through Ireland, using loopholes to pay minimal taxes. According to the Commission, Apple paid 1 percent on profits in 2003, and as little as 0.005 percent in 2014.

The Irish government has begun closing some loopholes, and the Commission has proposed new tax rules that would spread some of Apple's obligations around the E.U.

13 Comments

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

So what has actually happened is completely different to what the headline says has happened.

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

Bloody blackmailers.

nunzy 662 comments · 6 Years

Who cares? Apple made a lot more than 15 billion by doing it.

They came out way ahead, and their stock value proves it.

chasm 3597 comments · 10 Years

Rayz2016 said:

So what has actually happened is completely different to what the headline says has happened.

No, but this should serve as a reminder not to stop reading at the headline. That's why AI writes full articles; there is more to say than can come across in ~12 words.

I agree that "Apple deposits two-thirds of possible Ireland back taxes into escrow" or something like that would have been more accurate, but the point is that the money is available if Apple loses the appeal, which seems likely (as Apple does not, to my knowledge, have any new evidence that they didn't have before), so the headline is likely accurate if speculative at the moment.

The part of this that rankles me is that the EU's decision amounts to retroactive taxation with the penalty on Apple, rather than the politicians who set up this illegal state aid deal. It is Ireland -- and Ireland alone -- that should be paying the penalty.

gatorguy 24609 comments · 13 Years

chasm said:

Rayz2016 said:

So what has actually happened is completely different to what the headline says has happened.

The part of this that rankles me is that the EU's decision amounts to retroactive taxation with the penalty on Apple, rather than the politicians who set up this illegal state aid deal. It is Ireland -- and Ireland alone -- that should be paying the penalty.

There is no penalty. It's simply taxes that should have been paid and that money goes to Ireland. Of course that's barring any other countries making a claim on it since some of it originally came from transactions that occurred in their countries