Tax ruling not political, based on Apple data: European Commission

Brussels

THE European Commission on Thursday rejected Apple's criticism that an EU order to the company to pay back taxes to Ireland was political, noting that the calculations were based on facts and Apple's own data.

In an interview with the Irish Independent newspaper, Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Thursday described the EU's imposition of a 13 billion euro (S$19.7 billion) back tax bill as "total political crap" motivated in part by anti-US bias.