European Court Orders Apple to Pay Ireland a Massive $14B in Back Taxe

By Thea Felicity

Sep 10 2024, 10:20 AM EDT

Apple has been named Singapore's top employer for 2024 in a recent survey conducted by Statista, with Google following closely in second place. ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty ImageS

Ireland may be receiving a massive €13 billion ($14 billion) payment from Apple in unpaid taxes, just after releasing their brand new iPhone 16 models.

According to BBC, the European court gave the order after finding that Apple was given "illegal tax advantages" since 2016, although Ireland has been calling for the company's taxes to be paid.

Now, the Irish government responded by respecting the EU ruling. But the same cannot be said to Apple who slammed the commission for changing the rules, or their access to tax advantages in Ireland. In response, EU stood on their ground that it's illegal because no other companies are in the same condition as Apple when it comes to their corporate taxes.

Although corporation tax rates for businesses are set nationally, and thus are not under the EU's brief, the trade bloc does have far-reaching powers in respect of the regulation of state aid. Iin this case, by applying very low tax rates to Apple, Ireland was granting the firm an unfair subsidy.

EU explained that the €13 billion ($14 billion) payment was covered from 1991 to 2014. This takes into account Apple's profits in Ireland among said years.

European Commission on Companies Reducing Their Taxes

The decision received praise from the chief of EU antitrust, Margrethe Vestager, who also celebrated Google's $2 billion payment due to unfair web search competition.

Currently, the European Commission's target is to seek multinational giants believed to be using creative financial arrangements to reduce their tax bills after it was overturned by the lower court of the ECJ in 2020 following an appeal by Ireland. Recently, the High Court in this country, however, stated there were legal errors in that initial verdict.

Because of the ECJ ruling, Ireland now has to recover the lost taxes from Apple. However, it seems that the Irish government does not want to receive the back taxes.

CNBC shared the country argues that Apple should not have to repay the back taxes, since its loss is worth the cost to make the country an attractive home for large companies. This is considering Ireland, with one of the lowest EU corporate tax rates, is home base for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Apple.