According to foreign media reports, Apple today reached an agreement with the EU agreed to pay Ireland from next year to pay the 15.4 billion tax due to combat tax avoidance, the EU made a landmark decision last year, ordered Apple to Ireland Pay the tax owed.
Although the ruling was released more than a year ago, in August 2016 Ireland refused to accept the money.
For Ireland, this is a strategic move that hopes to stimulate foreign companies to invest in the country with low tax rates, but it is precisely because of this that US technology companies like Apple have used Ireland as a tax haven. Between 2003 and 2014, Apple's actual tax rate in Europe was only 0.005% due to the specialized collection and preservation of offshore revenues by subsidiaries and shell companies.
For a long time, Apple has been criticized for denying the outside world for its tax policies, chief executive Tim Cook said the EU Commissioner's ruling was "totally nonsense in politics."
Because of Ireland's inaction, the EU sued the government for the EU Supreme Court, the European Court of Justice, forcing it to levy taxes.
Irish Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe announced today that Ireland expects Apple to start paying tax on its escrow accounts from the first quarter of 2018.
Apple and the Irish government all appealed the ruling, and Apple executives seem to think they can get it back if the appeal is successful. "Apple said in a statement: 'In the European Commission's order, we sent A dedicated team is working with Ireland.
Apple also said: 'We still believe that once the General Court of the EU has reviewed all the evidence it will overturn the European Commission's decision.'