Apple paid $17 billion in taxes to Ireland last year, which is 40% of its $43 billion worldwide total, says a report by the Financial Times. The figures were made public for the first time, thanks to new European Union rules requiring large companies like Apple to detail their finances on a country by country basis.
The payment was significantly increased, thanks to the EU’s top court ordering Apple in 2024 to pay €13 billion in back taxes. The European Commission claimed Apple was given preferential treatment, via tax breaks by Ireland, including one rate that was as low as 1% on European profits in 2003, and as low as 0.005% in 2014. Apple funneled its European income through Ireland in order to take advantage of the low rates.
The European Commission ordered Apple to pay 13.1 billion euro to Ireland, along with 1.2 billion extra in interest.
EU rules forbid preferential tax treatment, such as that given to Apple by Ireland, including cases in which individual member states offer companies benefits not available elsewhere in the European Union.
Apple Ireland has been paying out some big bucks lately, as in March 2026, Apple’s Irish subsidiary was fined more than half a million dollars by the UK government for breaking sanctions against Russia. Apple Ireland was fined £390,000 ($516,110) for making payments to a sanctioned Russian streaming platform in 2022.
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) said that Apple Distribution International Ltd. (ADI), the Republic of Ireland-based entity Apple uses to pay App Store developers, made two payments totaling £635,618 to Okko LLC, a Russian video streaming platform in June and July 2022:
Okko was subject to UK sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the UK is not part of the European Union, the payments were made via a UK-based bank.
ADI voluntarily disclosed the payments to OFSI, and the agency confirmed that no breach had been attributed to Apple Inc. itself.
According to OFSI, Apple had relied on corporate affiliates to handle payment processing, sanctions screening, and due diligence. However, such companies are responsible for ensuring their own compliance with rules.
While Apple could have been liable for a $1.3 million fine, the amount was lower because the company voluntarily disclosed the payments, and because it had waived its right to appeal.
