Apple to pay 318m euro tax penalty in Italy

Apple has been ordered to pay €318m as part of an Italian tax probe, though this is less than half than the company was alleged to have owed.

The US tech giant has agreed to pay the back tax owed to Italy’s inland revenue, according to the La Repubblica newspaper, after the tax authority accused Apple Italia of transferring some €880m of profit made in Italy between 2008 and 2013 to a subsidiary based in the Irish city of Cork, in order to benefit from Ireland’s lower corporate tax rate.

Having the profits booked through the Irish unit enabled the company to reduce its taxable income.

In 2014, the EU said Apple's tax deals with the Irish government stretching back over two decades constituted illegal state aid.

The company denied culpability, saying it "didn’t do anything that was against the law”.