The Irish government has been paid the €14.3 billion (£12.7 billion) it was owed in taxes from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
In 2016, the European Commission ruled that Apple was receiving unfair tax incentives. Apple and Dublin are appealing against this ruling.
Irish finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, said in a statement: “While the government fundamentally disagrees with the commission’s analysis and is seeking an annulment of that decision, as committed members of the European Union, we have always confirmed that we would recover the alleged state aid.”
Dublin began recovering the money in May and has now recovered the €13.1 billion in disputed taxes plus interest of €1.2 billion.
The total amount collected equates to Ireland’s health budget for the year.
The money collected will be held in an escrow fund while the appeal takes place. The appeal is expected to last several years before being resolved.
The Irish Finance Ministry said: “These sums will be placed into an escrow fund with the proceeds being released only when there has been a final determination in the European Courts over the validity of the Commission’s Decision.”
An Apple spokesperson said the company was confident over the appeal.
“The Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money. The United States government and the Irish government both agree we’ve paid our taxes according to the law.”
Ireland’s low tax rate has attracted several tech giants to locate European operations in the country. Groups based in Ireland include Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
