Last year, the European Commission established that Apple must pay 13 billion euros in the form of retroactive taxes for the profit made during 10 years. The amount is the largest imposed on a company by the European Commission, the payment deadline for it being January 3rd, those from Cupertino have so far avoided making the payment.
Despite the fact that Apple did not pay the said amount and despite the fact that it, together with the American authorities, opposes the decision, the European Commission is satisfied with the progress made in recovering the money. The European commissioner for competition, Margarethe Vestager, claims that because of the very large amount that needs to be recovered, progress is slow.
Despite this, she is satisfied with the way the authorities in Ireland have acted so far to recover the amount, although they oppose last year's decision. Even Apple does not seem to cooperate with the European Commission, at least publicly, but privately the Irish authorities seem to be satisfied with the cooperation of those from Cupertino.
At the same time, the Irish authorities now say that they will respect the decision of the European Commission and will try to recover the 13 billion euros from the Apple company. If this will happen or not, we will find out in the coming months, but it is unlikely that Apple will pay such a large amount for the profit made in Europe.
"It's a tricky thing to do because it's a large sum so of course you have to figure out how to do that. It's not as an escrow account in some of the other cases where it might be 25 or 30 million euros … and therefore I do respect that it's a complicated matter and it may take a little more time."
