Apple agrees to pay £136 million in tax after HMRC investigation
Apple agrees to pay £136 million in tax after HMRC investigation
The exact agreement between Apple and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs remains a mystery, as the HMRC does “not comment on the tax affairs of individual companies”. Apple has not gone into specific details regarding this tax payment, though they have released the following statement.
As a multinational business and the largest taxpayer in the world, Apple is regularly audited by tax authorities around the world. HMRC recently concluded a multiyear audit of our UK accounts and the settlement we reached with HMRC is reflected in our recently filed accounts.
As a result of this agreement with the HMRC, Apple Europe will now pay increased UK taxes moving forward. Apple Europe provides marketing services for its European headquarters based in Ireland.
This recent tax scandal comes less than two years after Apple was forced to pay €13 billion Euros in tax after an order from a European Commission. This tax payment was due to an illegally low tax rate set by Ireland, who is currently contesting the commission’s decision. At this time the €13 billion is getting paid into a separate account while Ireland continues the challenge the commission, despite that fact that they are the country that will be receiving the money.
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