You may have heard that the EU Commission has ruled that Apple must repay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes dating back to 2003-2014 (via BBC) — it is attempting to replace tangible Irish tax laws “with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been.”
Tim Cook responds:
Tim Cook has posted an open letter on Apple’s website in response to the European Commission’s ruling that Apple must pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes dating from 2003 through 2014.
Cook’s letter begins by discussing Apple’s long history in Ireland, which dates back to a small facility that housed 60 employees in 1980. That statistic has now expanded to 6,000 employees across Ireland in total, benefiting both the company and local economies.
As it’s grown, Cook says that Apple has become “the largest taxpayer in the world,” and that “Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe.” Directly confronting the European Commission’s ruling, Cook claims that the EC has “launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe.”As responsible corporate citizens, we are also proud of our contributions to local economies across Europe, and to communities everywhere. As our business has grown over the years, we have become the largest taxpayer in Ireland, the largest taxpayer in the United States, and the largest taxpayer in the world.
Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe.