Apple boss Tim Cook brands tax ruling as "political crap"

Here’s what he said

Apple boss Tim Cook has hit out at EU’s recent tax ruling as “political crap”.

Earlier this week, European Commision president Margarethe Vestager released findings of a three-year investigation into Apple’s tax dealings in Ireland, discovering that the company paid a mere 0.005% tax payment in 2014.

This led the European Commission to deem the tax benefits as illegal, suggesting that Ireland pay £11bn for the outrage.

“It’s total political crap,” Cook said. “They just picked a number from I don’t know where. In the year that the commission says we paid that tax figure, we actually paid $400m. We believe that makes us the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year.”

He added: “Some people would say that it should be higher and some might say it should be lower. I’d be the first to say that the tax system needs to be reformed and that it should be made simple and straightforward. But it should be talked about going forward, not in a way that retrofits the law to what others wish it was.”