[JURIST] The Irish government announced Tuesday that it would submit its appeal within the week against the European Commission’s [official website] demand that Apple pay back-taxes. In a statement on Tuesday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan [official profile] said [Reuters report] that the Irish government “fundamentally disagrees with the European Commission’s analysis and the decision left no choice but to take an appeal to the European Courts and this will be submitted tomorrow.” Ireland and Apple both deny wrongdoing.

In September, Irish lawmakers voted [JURIST report] to appeal the ruling of the European Commission that would entitle the country to almost $15 billion of unpaid taxes from Apple. Noonan said that talks between the Fine Gael party and the Independent Alliance determined that allowing the ruling to stand could hurt Ireland’s ability to attract foreign investments in the future. Enda Kenny, Prime Minister of the Republic, gave an interview detailing how he is confident that the appeal will succeed because tax issues are a matter for each sovereign to decide, not the European Commission. Apple pays from almost 0-1 percent taxes on its profits in Ireland and the European Commission is claiming that the tech giant illegally funded profits through its Ireland headquarters to avoid higher tax payments.