Apple has missed the deadline to pay €13bn (£11bn) it owes to the Irish government in tax benefits, the European Union’s competition said on Tuesday.

In response to a question to CNBC during a press conference in Dublin, Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner admitted that collecting the money was a “tricky thing to do” because the sum was so large.

Ms Vestager said that the commission is working with Irish authorities to recover the unpaid taxes, according to CNBC.

“It's a tricky thing to do because it's a large sum so of course you have to figure out how to do that. It's not as an escrow account in some of the other cases where it might be €25 or €30m […] and therefore I do respect that it's a complicated matter and it may take a little more time,” she added.

European authorities have accused Ireland of helping Apple to avoid paying to pay high taxes by means of a so-called “sweetheart deal” that is in breach of EU rules.

In August, the commission said the deal devised by the Irish government had allowed Apple to pay tax of just 0.005 per cent in 2014 and an average rate of 1 per cent over many years.

The deadline for Ireland to recover the money into an escrow account was January.

However, the issue has proved complicated as both the Irish authorities and Apple have repeatedly denied breaching state aid rules. Both have separate appeals pending against the European Commission’s findings.

The Irish finance ministry said the European Commission had misunderstood both Irish law and had exceeded its powers, seeking to breach Ireland’s sovereignty in national tax affairs.

The ruling means Ireland stands to gain an additional £11bn from those unpaid taxes but Ireland's decision to appeal - rather than take the money - is based around its economy's dependence on foreign companies.

5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Show all 5 1 /5 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Facebook Facebook paid £4327 in corporation tax in 2014, after it made a pre-tax loss of £28.5 million, according to filings at Companies House. That's less tax that new average UK employee pays on their salary. 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Amazon Amazon’s UK business paid just £11.9m in corporation tax last year, even though the online retail giant took £5.3bn in sales from British shoppers. 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Google So well known for avoiding tax that it had the 'Google tax' on multinationals that move profits to low-tax countries named after it. Alarm bells started ringing in 2012, when Google revealed it payed only £11.6 million to the Treasury, despite taking £3.4 billion in the UK. 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Uber Uber paid £22,134 in UK corporation tax last year despite making an £866,000 profit. 5 tax avoiding companies in the UK Starbucks In October, the European Commission ruled that Starbucks' tax deal in the EU was illegal, ordering it to pay pay between €20-30 million to the Netherlands.

The country has structured its economy around attracting multinationals with its low corporate tax rate.

About 1,000 firms, including Facebook and Google, have their European headquarters in Ireland, due mainly to its 12.5 per cent headline rate of corporate income tax – the second-lowest in the EU.