Apple pays first €1.5 billion to Ireland in tax case

Apple has made an initial payment of 1.5 billion euros to Ireland. In total, the company has to pay a sum of 13 billion euros from the European Commission, because it received an illegal tax advantage from Ireland.

Reuters reports based on information from Ireland’s finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, that the payment has been made to a trust account. At the end of last year, the minister said he expected Apple to start paying in the first quarter of this year. Bloomberg news agency reports that it has been in contact with an EU speaker, who said the pending case at the European Court of Justice could be dropped if Ireland rushes to collect the payments.

The European Commission announced in October last year that it had referred the case to the EU court because Ireland had not yet asked for the money back from Apple. The deadline, according to the Commission, expired on 3 January 2017. Ireland and Apple have also appealed the Commission’s decision that Apple had received €13 billion in unjustified tax benefits from Ireland. According to Bloomberg, the money will remain in a separate account until there is an outcome in those cases. Donohoe says he expects to receive the full amount by September.

The decision that Apple must pay comes in the summer of 2016. The European Commission said at the time that the company had paid too little tax on its profits, which would have resulted in a competitive advantage over other companies. There would also be state aid through the granting of an advantage.