Apple has filed an appeal against a European Union ruling that claims the tech giant must pay up to €13bn ($13.5bn) in back taxes in the Republic of Ireland.
In August, the EU ruled Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland were illegal, and demanded a record penalty.
Apple says it has been singled out and was “a convenient target”.
The Irish Government is also contesting the decision, claiming that EU regulators were interfering with national sovereignty.
It said if the EU ruling went against it, the company would pay 40% of all the corporate taxes collected in Ireland.
Apple’s European headquarters are located in Ireland – where the standard rate of corporate tax is 12.5%.
But in August, the Eurpoean Commission said that Ireland had enabled the company to pay substantially less than other businesses, in effect paying a rate of no more than 1% tax.
In a statement today, the Irish Department of Finance, says that the European Commission had “misunderstood the relevant facts and Irish law and that Ireland did not give favourable tax treatment to Apple, the full amount of tax due was paid in this case and no state aid was provided”.
It added that “Ireland does not do deals with taxpayers.”
Even if Apple lost its appeal, the record tax bill should not be a problem for iPhone maker, which saw a net profit of $53bn in the 2015 financial year.
Apple is not the only company under the spotlight for securing favourable tax deals in the European Union. Last year, the commission told the Netherlands to recover as much as €30m (£25.6m) from Starbucks, while Luxembourg was ordered to claw back a similar amount from Fiat.
20,000 new jobs announced in Ireland in 2016
A total of 20,160, new jobs were created in Ireland in 2016 to date according to business website siliconrepublic. That equates to an average of 55 new posts per day in Ireland