Singapore overtakes Ireland as Apple’s biggest tax shelter

Apple shaved $2.7 billion (€2.4 billion) off its tax bill this year by channelling earnings into Singapore, according to new disclosures that reveal how the city-state has become the tech giant’s biggest tax shelter.

The figures, filed together with Apple’s annual report under new US reporting requirements, reveal the company took advantage of Singapore’s tax incentives regime to lower its bill after attributing as much as $50 billion in profits through its Asian hub in 2026.

Its savings in Singapore exceeded the $2.6 billion reduction it achieved via Ireland, Apple’s European headquarters, the disclosures published this week show.

“While Apple’s reliance on Ireland was first revealed more than a decade ago, the enormous tax savings in Singapore are a major revelation,” said Zorka Milin, codirector of the Fact Coalition, a Washington-based tax transparency group.

Apple declined to comment.

The savings show that even after more than a decade of concerted global effort to level the playing field on corporate taxation, large US tech groups continue to reap the rewards of accumulating profits in low-tax jurisdictions.

The filings are part of new US federal accounting rules that require US-listed companies to divulge when their tax on overseas profits differs significantly from the statutory federal rate, which is 21 per cent.

If Apple had been taxed on all of its global profits in 2026 at the US federal rate, it would have incurred a total bill of $33 billion – demonstrating the scale of the $5 billion tax reduction it received from booking profits in Ireland and Singapore. The company incurred corporation taxes totalling $27 billion this year.

Many US multinationals do not pay the 21 per cent federal rate on all their US income because of domestic deductions and tax credits. However, the differential between this rate and the tax incurred elsewhere indicates which overseas jurisdictions a company derives the greatest tax benefit from.

Apple has faced intense scrutiny over its use of offshore hubs to reduce its tax bill. The tech giant was forced to repay more than €13 billion in Irish taxes with interest after a high-profile 2016 EU state aid investigation found it had illegally benefited from tax breaks in the country.

Sales between subsidiaries can allow multinational companies to move profits out of high-tax jurisdictions and into low-tax ones, a strategy known as profit shifting.

The backlash against such manoeuvres led to a landmark deal in 2021, in which countries led by the OECD agreed to introduce a minimum effective corporate tax rate of 15 per cent.

Many low-tax jurisdictions, including Ireland and Singapore, aligned themselves with the OECD effort, with some anticipating an exodus of multinational companies as they raised their tax rates.

But this flight has so far not materialised, allowing the countries to collect windfall tax payments.

Singapore, for example, clawed back $2.5 billion from Apple in 2026 via a top-up tax it implemented last year as it aligned with the OECD initiative.

Mike Lewis, director of investigative think tank TaxWatch, said the global minimum tax set a relatively low floor, meaning that “to some degree, it’s business as usual for some of these companies”.

Others have argued that companies’ decisions to remain for now in these jurisdictions are a sign they are there for reasons aside from low taxes, such as skilled workforces, infrastructure and stable political and legal frameworks.

Apple’s biggest Singaporean subsidiary is a sales and marketing hub, selling products and services to Apple entities overseas and “developing intellectual property”, its accounts show.

Across its two main Singaporean entities, Apple generated about $9 million in pretax profit per employee in 2024, the latest year for which figures can be calculated.

In Ireland last year, Apple’s pretax profit per employee was $6 million. Across the world in 2025, the equivalent figure was less than $1 million.

These vast disparities show the mismatch between the size of Apple’s workforce in these jurisdictions and the substantial profits accrued there.

Singapore rolled out the OECD rules for financial years starting in 2025. Its headline corporate tax rate is 17 per cent, exceeding the global minimum tax, but companies can negotiate incentives that reduce this rate.

The US disclosures indicate Apple benefits from such arrangements, which offer relief and credits for activities deemed by Singapore to be of high economic value.

From 2023 to 2025, Apple’s effective tax rate in Singapore fluctuated about 10 per cent, accounts for its main local entities show.

This year and in the future, the top-up taxes levied as part of the OECD initiative are likely to take the rate closer to 15 per cent.

In 2025 Apple booked pretax profits of nearly $40 billion in its Singaporean subsidiaries, according to their latest published accounts.

This year, the figure could be as high as $50 billion, Financial Times estimates based on the US disclosures suggest.

“We’re starting to get an idea of just how much lost [tax] revenue is being left on the table, billions of dollars just for this one company in a single year,” said Milin, of the Fact Coalition.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026