The boss of Apple today said that “maddening” and “outrageous” demands from Brussels officials for an £11 billion tax repayment from the company were politically motivated.
Chief executive Tim Cook claimed this week’s ruling from European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager “has no basis in fact or in law”.
His comments came two days after the iPhone maker was accused of gaining from a decade of illegal favourable treatment by the Dublin government that reduced its corporate tax bill to as little as 0.005 per cent by 2014.
However, Mr Cook told the Irish Independent newspaper that the company had actually paid $400 million (£305 million) in tax in Ireland that year.
He said: “They just picked a number from I don’t know where. In the year that the Commission says we paid that tax figure, we actually paid $400 million. We believe that makes us the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year.”
In a separate interview with Irish broadcaster RTE he said of the ruling: “It’s maddening, it’s disappointing, it’s clear that this comes from a political place, it has no basis in fact or in law, and unfortunately it’s one of those things we have to work through.
“When you’re accused of doing something that is so foreign to your values, it brings out an outrage in you, and that’s how we feel. Apple has always been about doing the right thing.”
He also repeated a previous claim that investigations of Apple’s tax arrangements outside America were “total political crap”.
Apple employs around 6,000 people in Ireland, most of them in Cork, where it opened its first Irish factory in 1980, its first operation in Europe.
Mr Cook said Apple will “go forward” with an expansion at its European headquarters in the southern Irish city that will create 1,000 new jobs, despite misgivings over future investment across Europe.
He said he would “love” to see the Dublin government launch an appeal against the ruling.
He added: “I think we’ll work very closely together, as we have the same motivation. No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together. Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable.”
The Irish cabinet met yesterday to discuss the EU ruling but failed to reach agreement. They will meet again tomorrow to decide whether to appeal against the Commission’s decision.