Apple paid $17 billion in corporate income taxes to Ireland in 2025, representing 40% of its worldwide total, according to new tax disclosures required under EU rules for large companies. The Financial Times reported that these payments included back taxes stemming from a long-running EU dispute that concluded in 2024 when the European Court of Justice upheld an order requiring Ireland to recover up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes. Apple disputed the findings throughout the case, arguing that it complied with Irish tax law and that profits were tied to intellectual property developed in the U.S. The court ruled that two Irish tax rulings enabled Apple to allocate most profits from Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe to "head offices" with no employees or physical presence.

The filings revealed that a quarter of Apple's global pre-tax profits were booked through its Ireland entities, despite employing only about 3% of its workforce there. Apple recorded pre-tax profits of $6 million per employee in Ireland, compared to just $51,000 per employee in Germany, where it paid $153 million in cash taxes—0.3% of its total. Apple employs 5,575 people in Ireland, home to its European headquarters, and 4,089 in Germany.

Apple told the FT that it is "consistently one of the world's largest taxpayers" and argued that the disclosures don't capture the full scope of its tax contributions, as they focus only on corporate income taxes tied to asset locations rather than other taxes like VAT, which are based on customer locations.