Apple paid less than 2 per cent tax on its overseas profits, documents revealed today, after the iPad and iPhone giant slashed the amount foreign taxmen receive.
Apple paid $713 million (€555 million) in corporation tax outside the US in the year to September 29th, despite its foreign pre-tax earnings surging more than 50 per cent to $36.8 billion (€28.7 billion), papers filed with US regulators revealed.
The technology giant’s overseas tax rate fell to 1.9 per cent, compared to 2.5 per cent the previous year and a headline corporation tax rate in the UK of 24 per cent and 35 per cent in the US.
The slide in its overseas tax rate came as the company sold 125 million iPhones, 58 million iPads and 13.5 million MacBook laptops worldwide, including the US.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
The California-based firm is the latest company to come under scrutiny for making a poor contribution to overseas coffers after Starbucks, Facebook and Google met similar criticism.
Company accounts filed by Starbucks Coffee Company (Ireland) show it paid less than €40,000 in taxes here between 2005 and 2011 while paying €5.7 million in royalty and licensing fees to its parent company in the same period.