--- description: Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook described the European Union's imposition of a $14.5 billion back tax bill as "total political crap" title: Apple CEO Says E.U. Tax Ruling Is 'Total Political Crap' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted3b849448124347/6988a478f887dc85d5e9743b/rtx2nl45.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [legal](/tag/legal/) ## legal Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Apple CEO Tim Cook Says E.U. Tax Ruling Is 'Total Political Crap' by [Reuters](/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 1, 2016 6:36 AM CUT  An Apple logo is seen in the window of an authorised apple reseller store in Galway, Ireland August 30, 2016. An Apple logo is seen in the window of an authorised apple reseller store in Galway, Ireland August 30, 2016.Clodagh Kilcoyne—Reuters by [Reuters](/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 1, 2016 6:36 AM CUT (DUBLIN) – Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Thursday described the [European Union’s imposition](http://time.com/4472500/apple-eu-irish-tax-bill/ "undefined") of a 13 billion euro ($14.5 billion)[ back tax bill](http://time.com/4472255/apple-tax-bill/ "undefined") as “total political crap” motivated in part by anti-U.S. bias, the Irish Independent reported. Cook told the newspaper in an interview he would work closely with Ireland to try to overturn the decision and said the U.S. tech giant was committed to its operations in Ireland. “No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together. Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable,” Cook was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “It’s total political crap.” He said anti-U.S. bias was “one reason why we could have been targeted,” the newspaper reported. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4475494/apple-ceo-tim-cook-eu-tax-ruling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4475494/apple-ceo-tim-cook-eu-tax-ruling/"},"headline":"Apple CEO Tim Cook Says E.U. Tax Ruling Is 'Total Political Crap'","datePublished":"2016-09-01T06:36:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:20:00.141Z","description":"'Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable'","url":"https://time.com/4475494/apple-ceo-tim-cook-eu-tax-ruling/","keywords":["legal","Tax","Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted3b849448124347/6988a478f887dc85d5e9743b/rtx2nl45.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Reuters","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/reuters/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted3b849448124347/6988a478f887dc85d5e9743b/rtx2nl45.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Apple logo is seen in the window of an authorised apple reseller store in Galway","caption":"An Apple logo is seen in the window of an authorised apple reseller store in Galway","creditText":"Clodagh Kilcoyne—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/legal/","name":"legal"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4475494/apple-ceo-tim-cook-eu-tax-ruling/","name":"Apple CEO Tim Cook Says E.U. Tax Ruling Is 'Total Political Crap'"}}]}] ```