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Apple ordered to pay 13bn euro tax bill to Ireland, both to appeal

The European Commission has taken a big bite out of Apple. The tech giant has been ordered to pay up to 13 billion euros in back taxes to the Irish government in Dublin. The EU accused Apple, which employs thousands of people in Ireland, of benefiting unfairly from special arrangements with the country that allowed it to keep its tax bills there to a minimum. The EC ruled the scheme, which saw profits routed through Ireland, was illegal state aid. As a result, the bloc slapped Europe’s biggest ever tax penalty on Apple. The tech giant paid a tax rate on European profits of between 0.005 and 1 percent, the Commission said. Ireland’s low corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, drawing investors from major multinational companies whose staff account for almost one in 10 workers in the country. Both Apple and Ireland deny any wrongdoing and have said they will appeal the decision. The bill is far more than the 30 million euros each the European Commission previously ordered Dutch authorities to recover from US coffee chain Starbucks and Luxembourg from Fiat Chrysler for their tax deals. Both companies and countries have appealed those decisions. The US government has also weighed into the row over Tim Cook’s company, accusing the European Commission of deliberately targeting American firms – something Brussels denies. A huge tax bill is likely to make all the wrong headlines ahead of early September’s expected unveiling of Apple’s latest iPhone.