The European Commission has ordered Apple to pay the record sum after finding it paid as little as £50 on every £1m of profit.
Apple faces the record bill after the European Commission (EC) ruled that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid.
The tech giant’s tax arrangements enabled it to pay a tax rate of as little as 0.005% on its European profits in 2014, according to the probe.
That is just £50 in taxes on every £1m of profit.
The sum to be paid by Apple is 40 times bigger than any previous demand by the EC in such a case.
[responsive][/responsive]
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules.
“The Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years.”
The probe found that Apple’s profits were routed via Ireland to virtual head offices that had no employees, no premises and carried out no real activities.
Apple chief executive Steve Cook said that the ruling would have a “profound and harmful effect” on investment and job creation in Europe — WHAT!!!!..