Ireland has not recovered the billions from the Apple fine, Europe sends it to court

In the summer of 2016, the European Commission decided to
ask Apple to pay 13 billion euros to the Irish tax authorities, after having
judged that the Cupertino company had benefited from preferential treatment from the
from the Irish state.

This money should have been collectedin January, but this
is still not the case, so the European Commissionattack
Ireland in courtfor not having fulfilled his obligations.

Throughout the duration of the legal procedure following Apple's appeal,
Ireland will have to keep this money in an account which will be in the hands
of a common manager with Apple.

The amount is so high that it will have to be invested so as not to
"sleep", however Ireland does not want to take the risk of losing this
money and having to repay the entirety in the case of a judgment in
favor of Apple.

For example, if ever there is a drop it would only be 10% of the amounts
placed, this would still represent 1 billion euros in losses for
Ireland.

A little history on this affair, an investigation launched in 2014, allowed
to highlight the fact that "Apple, which employs more than 5,000 people in
Ireland, paid only around 2% tax per year on profits made in
the country, while the official Irish rate is 12.5%.

For comparison, the tax rate in France is 33%, hence the
Apple's choice to domicile its European headquarters in one of the European countries with
the lowest tax rate.

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan believes that Apple does not have
benefited from state aid, however his country must accept the judgment of the
European Commission, even if this puts a regime in the spotlight
tax which has attracted many multinationals.

Whatever the outcome of the appeal, it appears that Apple will have to end
its invoicing practices from Ireland for sales made in
different countries like France.

Source

Deputy editor-in-chief, also known under the pseudonym Teza. Former video games journalist, who has been immersed in tech and Apple products since his very first iPhone 3GS in 2009. He has since worked for several American tech sites and now for iPhon.fr. Incidentally YouTuber and Apple product specialist on the MobileAddict channel. To contact me: maxime[a]iphon.fr