Apple paid £12.9m in UK corporation tax in 2015

Apple paid £12.9m in corporation tax in the UK in 2015. The accounts for 26 September for the year show the tax bill for two of Apple's UK entities rose 9% in 2015 from £11.8m in 2014.

Apple's revenue rose 4.6% but the profit dipped to £78m, which resulted in corporation tax payments declining to £6.5m. Apple Retails UK Limited, a division that runs Apple's network of stores, posted a 12% increase in revenue to £1bn and a profit of £6.4m, according to a Telegraph report.

Apple has been accused of avoiding tax and paying only a meagre amount as tax. The company claims it pays "all that we owe according to the law" while supporting thousands of jobs in the UK.

A company spokesperson said: "Apple is the largest taxpayer in the world and we pay all that we owe according to the law. We have a long history in the UK and are proud of the significant contributions we've made over the past 36 years."

The details about Apple's UK tax emerge as the European Commission is set to announce its decision on a probe into Apple tax arrangement deals with Ireland in July this year.

The commission opened an investigation into Apple's tax practices in June 2014. Michael Noonan, Ireland's finance minister, said: "There's speculation that there may be a decision... in July, but we have no confirmation of that and no further information."

Like Apple, other tech majors such as Facebook and Google have also booked sales in Ireland because of its low corporation tax rate. However, Google agreed to pay £130m in back taxes after it reached an agreement with the UK authorities and promised to adopt a new approach for the UK taxes and settlement covering taxes from 2005 all the way to 2015.

Even Facebook, which was accused of paying only 4% of tax on the billions of dollar it generated in 2014, said it will book more ad sales in the UK.