EU tells Apple to pay up to 13b euros in tax to Ireland

Dublin

THE EU antitrust regulators ordered Apple on Tuesday to pay up to 13 billion euros (S$19.8 billion) in taxes to the Irish government after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid.

The massive sum, some 40 times bigger than the previous known demand by the European Commission to a company in such a case, could be reduced, the EU executive said in a statement, if other countries sought more tax themselves from the US tech giant.