EU Tax Bill Keeps Apple From Passing $100-Billion Milestone

After coming close to passing $100 billion in annual profit in each of the past three years, Apple finally managed to pass that milestone, at least in a way. Because technically, the iPhone maker fell short once again, reporting $93.7 billion in GAAP net profit for the fiscal year that ended on September 28. That's only after accounting for a one-time income tax charge of $10.2 billion related to a legal dispute that dates back almost 10 years, though, without which the company's net income would have surged to almost $104 billion.

In September, the European Court of Justice had issued a final ruling, finding that the European Commission was right in its 2016 judgement that deemed Apple guilty of receiving €13 billion of illegal state aid in the form of tax credits in Ireland. An amount that Apple was now forced to repay in full, plus interest. In terms of actual performance, the $104-billion figure is painting a more accurate picture for its management and investors, however, Apple argued, which is why it also reported the adjusted profit on a non-GAAP basis.

Only two companies have surpassed $100 billion in annual profit so far: Vodafone after selling its interest in Verizon Wireless in 2014 and Saudi Aramco, which did it four times already, in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

As the following chart shows, Apple’s net income grew more than 50-fold since 2006, the year before the iPhone was released. In 2010, the company surpassed $10 billion in annual profit for the first time. During the 2011 holiday season, Apple’s quarterly profit passed the $10-billion milestone, before hitting $20 billion in 2019 and almost $35 billion in the last three months of 2021.