Apple reportedly agrees to pay €318 million for Italy tax fraud case

Apple is making billion Dollars every year with its new products launch and has got huge success with the current flagship iPhones this year too. Apple was reported to have $178 billion in cash at the start of this year 2015 and till now, they may have crossed $200 billion cash. But Apple is also not free from troubles as Apple is going to pay €318 million in a recent tax fraud case in Italy. Apple’s Italian subsidiary, Apple Italia, has finally agreed to pay €318 million (£235 million; $348 million) as tax to the Italian tax office.

According to a report from BBC, Italy’s tax authorities has said that Apple failed to pay €880m in tax between the years 2008 and 2013 as a result of tax fraud investigation by prosecutors in Milan. The investigators further said that Apple has paid just €30m against over €1 billion of revenue in the above stated five years gap in Italy. But Apple needs to pay €880m instead of that amount.

The report also says that Apple headquarters are based in Ireland, a country with one of the lowest levels of corporation tax in the EU, where the tax rates are 12.5% compared with 27.5% in Italy and Apple is exploiting this loophole. The report further says that the Cupertino giant has not commented on this who has previously denied attempting to escape paying tax owed on profits made around the world. Tim Cook commented and has rejected the accusations by saying “We pay every tax dollar we owe.”

While Apple agrees to pay €318 million tax to Italy tax authorities, they faced another financial blow with a drop in their stock of $160bn, according to a USToday report. Analysts says that due to a weaker demand for smartphones, Apple is facing this problem but Apple is still gaining good profits with its Mac product line.

Apple launched the new flagship iPhone devices called the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in September that comes with 3D force touch display and other excellent features. Apple analysts says that the buyers are neglecting these new devices because of their higher price. But the price may not be a concern here as Apple products acts as a status symbol for the buyers. The main problem may be the buggy software that the Apple products are launched with. Apple keeps on updating the software time to time to resolve the bugs and issues but is not able to resolve all the issues in the iOS that frustrates its users the most.

Apple is also rumored to launch the budgeted iPhone 6C smartphone that is rumored to be launched with the 1642mAh battery with the Apple’s A9 processor, 16GB inbuilt storage, Touch ID and 2GB of RAM. The iPhone 6C is expected to launch in April next year and we can expect that it will help Apple to recover all its losses they faced this year.

Stay tuned for more updates.