Ireland describes EU decision to take it to court for not recovering tax due from Apple as 'extremely regrettable'

Ireland on Wednesday described as “extremely regrettable” an **EU** decision to take the country to the European Court of Justice for failing to recover up to **13 billion euros** ($15.3 billion) of tax due from **Apple Inc** .

[caption id=“attachment_3856249” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Apple logo.Reuters.[/caption]

Ireland has said the Commission’s August order for the US tech giant to pay the unpaid taxes was unjustified, but it had agreed to collect the money and was seeking one or more investment managers to handle an escrow account.

“It is extremely regrettable that the Commission has taken this action, especially in relation to a case with such a large-scale recovery amount,” the finance ministry said in a statement.

“Irish officials and experts have been engaged in intensive work to ensure that the State complies with all its recovery obligations as soon as possible, and have been in constant contact with the European Commission and Apple on all aspects of this process for over a year.”