US tech giant Apple has provisionally agreed to pay back Ireland €13 billion in what the EU called illegal state aid.
The money will begin to flow into an escrow account in January, where it will remain blocked pending a definitive ruling on the case by the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
An escrow account is one held by a third party while the two main participants complete their transaction.
“We expect the money will begin to be transmitted into the account from Apple across the first quarter of next year,” Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe told press in Brussels on Monday (4 December).
“Across the period in which we are defending the ruling, we will be complying with our obligations in terms of collecting the money from Apple,” he said.
The €13 billion covers the period 2003 to 2014 when Apple, which has its European, Middle East, and Africa HQ in Cork, in southern Ireland, paid Ireland 0.005 percent corporate tax instead of the country’s normal 12.5 percent rate in a sweetheart deal called a “tax ruling”.
The EU ordered Apple to repay the money to Ireland in August 2016.
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Andrew Rettman