American multinational tech giant company Apple Inc has agreed to pay over $15 billion to Ireland in back taxes in 2018.
Apple and Ireland agreed to the terms of an escrow fund for the money, said Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, according to the source Wall Street Journal.
The EU had earlier launched a fresh crackdown back in 2016 over taxes paid by the iPhone manufacturer. The EU said it planned to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to recover the money in back taxes from Apple.
The tax deal had allowed Apple to pay almost nothing as taxes on its European profits between 2003 and 2014, said European Union. It also said that Apple’s Irish tax benefits were illegal, enabling the firm to pay a corporate tax rate of no more than one percent.
Ireland had claimed that EU regulators were interfering with national sovereignty.
Earlier e-commerce giant Amazon was also ordered to repay $293 million in back taxes after European Commission said it had been given an unfair tax deal in Luxembourg. However Amazon denied it owed any back tax, saying it did “not receive any special treatment from Luxembourg“.