The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that Apple must pay the Irish government £11bn in back taxes.
Despite both Ireland and Apple saying they are happy with the amount of tax paid, Europe’s top court says the tech giant received in effect what was “unlawful aid”.
In July 2020 the General Court of the European Union annulled the original decision by the European Commission (in 2016). However, the European Commission appealed against the annulment arguing the lower court’s ruling was not legally correct.
The CJEU has sided with the argument that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits, which enabled Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over a number of years. The investigation found Apple was paying a corporation tax of 1% on its European profits in 2003, and even less in other years.
