LONDON — Apple won a major legal victory on Wednesday against European antitrust regulators as a European court overruled a 2016 decision that ordered the company to pay $14.9 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland. The Apple case stems from the company’s use of Ireland as its base for its European operations. In 2016, the European Union’s top competition regulator said Apple had used illegal deals with the Irish government to keep its tax bills low. In 2011, for instance, regulators said Apple’s Irish subsidiary recorded European profits of $22 billion, but only about $57 million was considered taxable in Ireland. Authorities said the arrangement amounted to an illegal subsidy, and ordered Ireland to recover 10 years of back taxes, worth 13 billion euros, or about $14.9 billion at current conversion rates.

Source: New York Times July 15, 2020 09:51 UTC