MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ireland provided US-based technology giant Apple with up to 13 billion euro ($14.5 billion) in illegal tax benefits and must now recover the money, the European Commission said Tuesday.
"The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid," the Commission said in a statement.
According to an investigation carried out by the Commission, Ireland's selective treatment enabled Apple to decrease its effective corporate tax rate on European profits from one percent in 2003 to 0.005 percent in 2014.
