Tax dispute with EU: Apple has paid off the Irish government
The Irish government did not want the money, but the EU Commission prevailed. Investment gains are even adding to Apple's additional payment.
Apple Ireland: Apple has been in the country since the 1970s.
(Image: Apple)
The final payment has now been made in the multi-year tax and subsidy dispute between Apple and the European Commission. According to the Republic of Ireland's Department of Finance, the sum of over €13 billion has now been received from a trust account. There was a "small" investment gain on top of that, bringing the final total to €14.25 billion. The last payment of €1.567 billion to the Irish government was received on May 9, 2025, and the account was officially closed on May 13, according to the Ministry of Finance. The London branch of the Bank of New York Mellon served as a "temporary repository." While the money was held in trust, three investment managers from Amundi (France), Blackrock (USA, Netherlands branch), and Goldman Sachs (USA, London branch) took care of increasing its value.
Long-standing affair over a tax avoidance scheme approved by Ireland
In 2016, the European Commission, in the form of the Competition Commission, had already ordered Apple to repay tax benefits granted by the Irish government between 1991 and 2014, which it considered illegal. The EU considered these to be unauthorized subsidies, while Apple insisted that it had complied with all tax regulations. The iPhone manufacturer then sued the EU, initially winning before the EU court in 2020, but then losing definitively before the ECJ in September 2024.
The Irish government was not aware of any fault on its part or on Apple's part. Apple emphasized that it had been operating in Ireland since the 1970s and had invested a lot of money and created many jobs. The dispute mainly concerned two companies based in the country, Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE), and the intellectual property licenses they held. Apple is said to have used this structure to significantly reduce its tax burden.
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Apple has paid almost $40 billion in the US
Meanwhile, Apple had paid taxes in the US on billions in profits that had not been repatriated: Following a tax reform by the first Trump administration, Apple transferred its immense foreign assets to its home country and paid just under $38 billion in taxes.
The tax affair is now over with the settlement of the trust account. Apple had set aside the billions in time, and the negative ruling by the ECJ last year barely scratched Wall Street. However, numerous other points of conflict between Apple and the EU remain unresolved under the Digital Market Act: These relate to the App Store and the interoperability of iPhones and iPads as so-called gatekeepers.
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