European Union(EU)Orders Apple to pay up to 13B euros in back taxes Tuesday Aug 30,2016

The European Commission's three-year investigation into Apple's sweetheart deal with Ireland has found it amounted to illegal state aid.

Its damning report published on Tuesday Aug 30,2016 says the tech giant paid as little as 0.005 % tax by funnelling its non-US profits through its Irish headquarters with no staff or premises then on to its $178billion (£120bn) offshore fund.

The Commission's landmark report says that between 2003 and 2014 Apple paid a rock bottom Irish tax rate on most of its profits outside the US before sending it to a tax haven where it paid no tax at all. It has more than £120billion stashed in offshore accounts. 

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: 'Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies-this is illegal under EU state aid rules.' 

 The Commission said in a statement: 'Ireland must now recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion), plus interest.' 

The giant tax bill, which could reach £16billion ($21 billion) because of interest, will not be difficult for the company to pay because it made $53.4billion (£35billion) last year - the biggest profit in corporate history.

But Apple will appeal saying the Commission's figures are 'completely made-up' and its CEO Tim Cook, who previously called the probe 'political c**p', is threatening EU job losses if they don't back down.

The US Treasury has also warned Brussels not to pursue American companies over tax avoidance - but McDonald's, Google and Amazon could be next.

Ireland has said it doesn't want Apple’s money even though it is equivalent to £2,400 for each of its 4.5million residents and would cover the costs of its national health service for a year.