Associated Press
John Sculley was CEO of Apple at the time that it agreed the tax deal with Ireland.
The investigation into Apple, which started in 2014, looks at a deal the company made with the Irish government back in 1991.
Apple first arrived in Ireland in 1980 when it launched a manufacturing plant in Holyhill, above Cork. Steve Jobs announced £7 million in investment in the country, along with 700 new jobs.
10 years later, after employing hundreds of people, Apple met with the Irish government to talk tax. Apple was a very different company back in the 1990s when it was negotiating with Ireland. Steve Jobs had resigned from the company in 1985 and didn't return until 1997. John Sculley was CEO. Apple's market share had collapsed. Microsoft and Windows were dominant.
In 1990, Apple's financial team met with the Irish government to draft an arrangement for how much tax it paid in the country. Notes from a 1990 meeting show the company explained to the government just how big its presence in Ireland was:
"[the tax adviser's employee representing Apple] mentioned by way of background information that Apple was now the largest employer in the Cork area with 1,000 direct employees and 500 persons engaged on a subcontract basis. It was stated that the company is at present reviewing its worldwide operations and wishes to establish a profit margin on its Irish operations. [The tax adviser's employee representing Apple] produced the accounts prepared for the Irish branch for the accounting period ended […] 1989 which showed a net profit of $270m on a turnover of $751m. It was submitted that no quoted Irish company produced a similar net profit ratio. In [the tax adviser's employee representing Apple]'s view the profit is derived from three sources - technology, marketing and manufacturing. Only the manufacturing element relates to the Irish branch."
The message is clear: We've been here for 10 years, we're a vital part of Cork, and if you don't strike a deal with us then maybe we'll go elsewhere.
The Irish government agreed a deal with Apple in 1991 to only tax a certain bracket of its earnings, giving it a dramatically lower tax rate than it would have to pay in the US. Apple got its lower tax rate, and Ireland kept Apple in the country. For a long time, that arrangement worked well. But as Apple's profits soared, the EU started to look more closely at the deal.
It's illegal for a government in the EU to strike a so-called "sweetheart deal" with a company. The European Commission classes those deals as illegal state aid, and it has decided that Ireland's deal with Apple is exactly that.
What's not clear is what's going to happen next. The tax bill could be up to $19 billion (£14.5 billion), which is a significant figure even for a company with Apple's financial position. It doesn't look like the bill is going to cause Apple to leave Ireland any time soon, though. It just secured planning permission for a €850 million (£726 million) new data centre, as well as a new office building to employ another 1,000 people in Holyhill.