The Revenue Commissioners has insisted it always collected the full amount of tax due from Apple in accordance with Irish law.

In a statement after the EU ordered the Republic to collect €13 billion of back taxes after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal State aid, Revenue’s chairman Niall Cody said: “The issue of international tax planning, involving mismatches between different countries’ tax rules, is well known and is the subject of the OECD Beps project.”

He was referring to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting (Beps) project to stamp out tax avoidance loopholes internationally.

Irish branches

“The profits of non-resident companies that are not generated by their Irish branches – such as profits from technology, design and marketing that are generated outside Ireland – cannot be charged with Irish tax under Irish tax law.”

Mr Cody said Apple has confirmed on the public record that the relevant companies were not tax-resident in Ireland.

He said Ireland showed no preference in applying the law in relation to Apple and that full tax due was paid in accordance with the law.