Apple saved over $5 billion in taxes in its 2026 fiscal year by routing profits through Singapore and Ireland, according to a Financial Times analysis of the company’s annual SEC filing. The analysis found that the company paid $27 billion in worldwide corporation tax for the year; had its global profits been taxed at the US federal rate of 21 per cent, the bill would have been $33 billion.
The tax savings came from Singapore ($2.7 billion) and Ireland ($2.6 billion). Apple’s effective tax rate in Singapore fluctuated around 10 per cent between 2023 and 2025, and is expected to approach 15 per cent under new OECD minimum tax rules, which added an extra $2.5 billion to its Singapore tax bill in 2026.
More than 130 countries have agreed to a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent for large multinationals under an OECD initiative. Ireland adopted the rules in 2024 and Singapore in 2025. New US accounting rules require public companies to disclose when overseas tax rates diverge significantly from the 21 per cent US federal rate.
Apple paid €13 billion in back taxes to the European Union in 2025 following a 2024 court ruling, and repatriated most of its $252 billion in overseas cash after earlier US tax reforms.