Tim Cook Fires Back at the European Commission over Irish Tax Discrepancy

"The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple's history in Europe, ignore Ireland's tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process," said Apple's CEO.

Tim Cook's comments come after European Union antitrust regulators ordering the worlds biggest company to pay up to $14.5 billion in taxes to Ireland. This figure is larger than Ireland's entire corporate tax take in 2015. Apple's scheme of sending profits to the island was ruled illegal by the Irish government.

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Related Link: EU Seeking Back Taxes From Apple; Who's Next?

"In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 percent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 percent in 2014," European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager was quoted as saying in an European Commission press release.

Tim Cook fired back, highlighting Apple's origins in Ireland, which date back to the 1980s when they started with just 60 employees — that figure has grown to over 6,000 at the headquarters in Cork, Ireland.

"It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been," said Cook about the ruling in an open letter.

Both Apple and Ireland plan to appeal the decision made.

Apple shares were down 0.93 percent on the day at time of publication, seen trading at $105.83.