Irish Ministers Set To Appeal EU Apple Tax Bill

Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's coalition government has agreed to appeal a ruling that Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) must pay it €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes.

The country's parliament will be asked to back the decision next week.

Apple faces the record bill after the European Commission ruled that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid.

It found that tax arrangements enabled the tech giant to pay a rate of as little as £50 in taxes on every £1m in European profits in 2014.

The figures have been disputed by Apple and the ruling was branded as "maddening" and "political crap" by its boss Tim Cook.

Mr Cook had warned that if the Irish government did not join it in appealing, it would send the wrong message to business in an economy partly depending on companies such as the tech giant.

Ireland's main opposition party, Fianna Fail, backs the decision to join Apple in an appeal meaning it should pass when legislators are asked to approve the move on Wednesday.

There had been misgivings among some independents in the Fine Gael-led coalition.

Some Irish voters are critical of the government turning down a tax windfall equivalent to what it spent last year funding the struggling health service.

Finance minister Michael Noonan said when the EC ruling was announced earlier this week that he would seek cabinet approval for an appeal.

He argued that Dublin needed to act to protect a tax regime that has attracted large numbers of multinational employers to the country.

The EC probe found that Apple's profits were routed via Ireland to virtual head offices that had no employees, no premises and carried out no real activities.

These profits were not subject to tax in any country under provisions of Irish law that are no longer in force.

It meant that one subsidiary, Apple Sales International, paid a tax rate of just 1% in 2003, declining to 0.005% by 2014, the EC said.