Tax dispute with EU: Apple has paid Irish state

In the multi-year tax and subsidy dispute between Apple and the European Commission, the last payment has now been made. According to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Ireland the sum of over 13 billion euros now received from a trust account. There was a “small” investment gain on top, so the finance was 14.25 billion euros. The last payment made to the Irish government received 1.567 billion on May 9, 2025, on May 13th the account was officially closed, according to the Ministry of Finance. The London branch of the Bank of New York Mellon served as “interim storage”. While the money was taken in trust, three investment managers from the companies Amundi (France), Blackrock (USA, branch of the Netherlands) and Goldman Sachs (USA, London branch) took care of its multiplication.

Long -term affair for a tax saving model, the Ireland Guthieß

In 2016, the European Commission in the form of the competitive commissioner had already made Apple to reject tax benefits granted by the Irish government for the period of 1991 and 2014. For the EU, this was unauthorized subsidies, while Apple emphasized that they had complied with all tax law requirements. The iPhone manufacturer then sued the EU, initially won before the EU court in 2020, but then finally lost in front of the ECJ in September 2024.

The Irish government was neither aware of its own nor Apple’s guilt. Apple emphasized that he has been working in Ireland since the 1970s and invested a lot of money and created many jobs. The dispute mainly dealt with two companies based in the country called Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE) as well as the licenses they have kept. With this construct, Apple is said to have significantly pressed its tax burden.

Apple paid almost $ 40 billion in the United States

In the meantime, Apple then taxed billions in profits that were not repatriated in the meantime: According to a tax reform of the first government of Trump, Apple spent his immensely abroad and paid almost $ 38 billion.

The tax affair now ends with the processing of the trust account. Apple had covered the billions in time, the negative decision of the ECJ hardly scratched the Wall Street last year. However, numerous other conflict points between Apple and the EU are not solved as part of the digital market act: This is about the App Store and the interoperability of iPhone and iPad as a so -called gatekeeper.