After a decade of legal wrangling, the European Union has officially given its final ruling over Apple and Ireland’s allegedly illegal tax agreement, and Apple has to pay up.
Apple’s European headquarters, located in Cork, Ireland.
Apple’s European headquarters, located in Cork, Ireland.
Since 2004 when the agreement was made, both Apple and Ireland have continually protested that the amount of tax being paid was legal and fair. It was an exceptionally low rate of tax, however, and moreover the sums being taxed were not just those earned by Apple in Ireland itself.
Instead, Apple effectively splits its operations into the US and the rest of the world, with all of the profits from the rest of the world going through its Ireland HQ. Consequently, in 2014, the EU investigated the agreement and concluded that the practice was not legal.