Apple Booked $6 Million of Profit Per Irish Employee

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) paid Ireland $17 billion in taxes last year, or 40% of its $43 billion worldwide corporate income tax bill, according to the Financial Times. The figure was inflated by the EU's top court ordering Apple in 2024 to pay 13 billion in back taxes, after ruling Ireland had granted it "unlawful aid" that produced an effective rate below 1%. Apple shares were down 1.17% intraday.

A quarter of Apple's global pre-tax profits in the year to September 2025 were booked through Irish entities employing about 3% of its workforce. That works out at $6 million of pre-tax profit per employee in Ireland, against $51,000 per employee in Germany, where Apple paid $153 million, or 0.3% of its total. It employs 5,575 people in Ireland and 4,089 in Germany.

The breakdown is new. EU rules now require large companies to report revenue, profit and tax by jurisdiction, disclosures that didn't exist before and that campaigners are using to press for higher contributions. Apple said it is consistently among the world's largest taxpayers, and distinguished corporate income taxes, paid where assets sit, from consumption taxes paid where customers are. Microsoft (MSFT) booked 38% of its global pre-tax profit in Ireland last year, more than $7 million per employee.