EU misinterpreted laws and interfered with national sovereignty in Apple tax decision, says Ireland

Ireland is set to appeal against the European Union's (EU) tax decision on Apple. It has said the US tech-giant was wrongly handed the mammoth tax bill of €13bn ($13.59bn, £10.8bn) in August and accused Brussels of interfering with national sovereignty.

The tax bill, by far the highest handed over to any company in Europe, was misjudged according to Ireland as the European Commission misunderstood both Irish law and the facts of the case. The government said the commission had not only exceeded its powers but made attempts to rewrite Irish corporation tax rules.

"Ireland does not do deals with taxpayers," the Irish finance ministry said in its latest statement.

Ireland will argue that the commission wrongly applied EU state-aid rules to the Apple case. The commission had alleged that Apple received illegal state-aid from Ireland in return for creating jobs in the nation.

"Ireland does not accept the commission's analysis, which is why we have lodged an application with the General Court of the European Union to annul the whole decision," says the ministry. "Ireland did not give favourable tax treatment to Apple — the full amount of tax was paid in this case and no state aid was provided."

Meanwhile, Apple is also ready to file its appeal against the ruling highlighting the fact that it was a "convenient target because it generates lots of headlines". The company's general counsel Bruce Sewell says the commission has "a misunderstanding of how corporations operate" as in this case it targeted Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe, the company's subsidiaries that are registered in Ireland but do not come under the resident entity category for tax applications.