Apple saved about $2.7 billion in taxes during fiscal 2026 by routing profits through Singapore, narrowly surpassing the $2.6 billion saved through its Irish hub, according to a Financial Times analysis of annual financial disclosures.
The company made the city-state its largest tax shelter by booking up to $50 billion in profits there. The figures emerged from Apple’s Form 10-K filed on November 3, marking the first time the corporation has broken down its tax bill country by country.
Accounting changes reveal shifting tax structures
The detailed geographic breakdown was forced by a new US accounting standard, ASU 2023-09, which requires large companies to itemize major reconciling items by jurisdiction. Previously, foreign tax effects were lumped together.
Starting with its 2026 report, Apple adopted this standard to disclose cash taxes paid by country. That gross benefit was offset by a $2.51 billion Singapore top-up tax and $311 million in other items, leaving a net saving of about $2.67 billion.
Singapore becomes the biggest single lever in Apple's tax bill
Roughly half of the gross benefit has already been clawed back by this regime.
🇺🇸🇸🇬 Apple saved approximately $2.7 BILLION in taxes through Singapore in FY 2026, overtaking Ireland as the company's biggest source of foreign tax savings. The tech giant benefited from Singapore's lower corporate tax rates and incentives, which initially reduced its tax bill… pic.twitter.com/H9NvZKGy35
Apple isn’t dodging the new regime. It’s paying it.
By comparison, Ireland’s corporate structure yielded a $3.46 billion rate benefit minus $897 million in other items, resulting in a net saving of about $2.57 billion. The cash side of these operations shows Apple paid $3.25 billion of income tax in Singapore and $4.96 billion in Ireland.
While Ireland tells a similar but smaller story, the new country-level data shows that Singapore, not Ireland, is now the biggest single lever in Apple’s tax bill, which will draw attention from lawmakers who spent a decade focused on Cork.
Apple reported $159.2 billion in pre-tax income for fiscal 2026, of which $95.5 billion was foreign, alongside a $27.06 billion tax provision. Its effective tax rate rose to 17.0% from 15.6% in fiscal 2025, which Apple attributes mainly to a higher rate on foreign earnings and US currency loss rules.
In fiscal 2024 the rate was 24.1% because of a one-time $10.2 billion charge after the EU’s top court ordered Apple to pay Ireland back taxes. These figures followed a report showing record fiscal 2026 revenue of $478.8 billion, up about 15% from a year earlier.