Why Ireland doesn't want to take billions from Apple

The Irish government joined Apple in vowing Tuesday to appeal the European Commission's judgment that the smartphone and computing giant didn't pay the correct volume of tax to Ireland for more than a decade, a mounting bill that analysts say could constitute 19 billion euros ($21 billion) with interest.

At stake is the foundation of Ireland's multinational-dependent, export-driven economy, which has rapidly rebounded from a banking crisis and 2010 international bailout to become once again the fastest growing in Europe.

Since the 1980s, successive Irish governments have made low corporate tax and other tax-avoidance measures a key part of their sales pitch to woo foreign firms to Ireland.

Today, most of the biggest names in drug making, social media and online commerce, software and other high-tech industries have made Ireland their preferred European base — in part because, as the European Commission's damning judgment has just concluded, the Irish seek to tax multinationals' worldwide profits as little as possible.