Apple Japan unit hit with €105m tax bill over money sent to Ireland: report
The news comes shortly after the EU ordered Ireland to recover €13bn from Apple.
AN APPLE UNIT in Japan has been ordered to pay 12 billion yen (€105 million) in taxes for underreporting income, according to media reports.
A report from Reuters, citing Japanese public broadcaster NHK, said that the order was related to income sent to Ireland.
It said that the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau found that an Apple Inc iTunes unit sent part of the profits it earned from Japanese subscribers to another Apple division in Ireland to pay for software licensing.
The report said that Apple had not been paying a withholding tax on those earnings in Japan. It said that the Apple unit has since paid the tax due.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fora.
€13 billion
The news comes in the wake of the European Commission’s decision that Ireland gave Apple illegal state aid worth up to €13 billion over a period of more than a decade.
The state has been ordered to recover the funds – plus interest – from the Californian firm.
However, the government is planning to fight the decision and recently won a Dáil motion to appeal the ruling.
The government claims it did not do any deal with Apple and that the ruling, if enforced, would damage the country’s reputation.
Several other EU countries, including Spain, Austria and Italy, have signalled that they intend to ask for a share of the €13 billion Apple has been ordered to pay.
This is something that the Irish government has taken issue with, complaining that it is effectively being asked to collect taxes on behalf of other EU countries.
