Now Apple’s got to pay an extra £81m on UK tax bill

APPLE’S tax bill has climbed by £ 81m after investigators probed another of its companies – bringing the total demanded by HM Revenue and Customs to almost £220m.

The hike in payments means one of its sales and marketing arms, Apple UK Ltd, has seen its total bill soar by 260pc.

Tax officials at HMRC combed through the company’s accounts for 2011 to 2015. Investigators are understood to have disputed how much commission Apple UK gets for providing business services to other firms owned by the iPhone maker.

For the five years to September 2015, it reported total sales of £500.5m and profits of £289.5m – but it paid just £22.6m in tax.

Apple said the hike in its bill by £81.4m was due to an ‘extensive audit’ by HMRC.

The fresh tax hit takes the total amount of back- dated payments made by Apple to £ 218m. Tax officials also swooped on another of its UK arms, Apple Europe Ltd. It was by Matt Oliver forced to hand over an extra £137m, accounts revealed last week. The company was criticised last year after its UK retail arm, Apple Retail UK, posted £1bn of sales at its British stores but paid just £8m in tax.

Apple has defended its tax affairs and insists it pays everything it owes in the countries it operates in.

A spokesman said: ‘As a multinational business and the largest taxpayer in the world, Apple is regularly audited by tax authorities.’

An HMRC spokesman said yesterday it did not comment on specific companies but stressed that large businesses were subjected to ‘an exceptional level of scrutiny’.

‘ Multinational companies must pay all taxes due and we don’t settle for less’, he said.

For the 18 months to April 2017, the new accounts showed Apple UK paid a further £35.7m in tax. The business reported sales of £313.1m and profit of £291.7m over the period.