Apple received $250bn dividend from Irish subsidiary in 2019

An Irish subsidiary of global tech giant Apple paid dividends of almost $250 billion (€213 billion) to its US parent last year, latest accounts show.

Apple Operations International Ltd (AOI) paid a dividend of $196.7 billion to Apple Inc in the year to the end of September 28th 2019, and an additional $51.8 billion post the year-end to bring the total payout to $248.5 billion.

The accounts state that the dividends were “fully subject to US tax”. The Irish entity had paid its Silicon Valley parent a dividend of $69.1 billion in the previous year.

The Apple subsidiary’s pretax profits decreased by 11 per cent last year to $41.68 billion, while its post-tax profits amounted to $35.49 billion, down from just more than $40 million a year earlier.

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The decline in profits at AOI followed a fall in revenues of 9.5 per cent to $140.99 billion in the 12-month period.

AOI is registered at the company’s Holyhill campus in Cork and covers most of Apple’s non-US subsidiaries. It acts as a holding company for a number of Apple subsidiaries and carries out research and development activities.

Tax charge

AOI incurred a tax charge of $6.19 billion last year across a number of countries where Apple operates. That figure excludes US-based taxes.

The accounts don't disclose corporate tax paid in Ireland but do refer to the Apple and Irish Government appeals against European Commission decision four years ago that the iPhone maker owed Revenue €13.1 billion in back taxes.

Last month Europe’s second-highest court last month ruled that the Government didn’t give Apple any state aid.

The accounts were signed off on March 27th of this year but only lodged with the Companies Registration Office in recent days and don't make reference to last month's court ruling.

Staff costs

Numbers employed at AOI and subsidiaries last year totalled 47,337 – an increase on the 43,325 employed in 2018. Some 6,000 of those employees are based in Ireland.

Staff costs totalled $4.19 billion, which included share-based compensation of $848 million.

AOI’s research and development (R&D) costs last year totalled €7.6 billion while AOL’s selling, general and administrative expenses last year totalled $8.5 billion.

Shareholder funds at the end of September last totalled $80.6 billion.

This is the only the second time that AOI has filed accounts with the Companies Registration Office. Under previous rules, AOI wasn’t required to file accounts and the business’s accounts were beyond public scrutiny, but an EU directive that came into force for the company’s fiscal year 2018 has resulted in AOI filing accounts for that year.