Singapore, not Ireland, did more to shrink Apple's tax bill in fiscal 2026, even though Apple sent more cash to Irish authorities.
According to Apple's annual report, the company paid $4.96 billion in cash income taxes in Ireland and $3.25 billion in Singapore. Measured against the 21% US federal corporate tax rate, Singapore lowered Apple's tax expense by $2.67 billion. That is about $100 million more than Ireland did.
The saving would have been larger without a top-up tax, which erased nearly half of it. Singapore introduced that levy to bring the effective tax rate for qualifying large multinationals up to 15%.
The two rankings are not a contradiction, because they measure different things. Cash paid is what actually left Apple's accounts. The saving is the gap between what the profit booked in a country would have cost at 21% and what Apple owed instead. A country can lead on one measure and trail on the other, depending on how much profit sits there and how low the rate is.
The profit side is large. The Financial Times estimated that Apple booked up to $50 billion in pretax profit in Singapore in 2026. Apple's Singapore subsidiaries reported nearly $40 billion a year earlier. The 2026 number is an estimate, so the year-over-year jump is approximate.
There is also a gap in the record. Apple reported a single combined figure for its foreign subsidiaries in fiscal 2025 and 2024, so those years offer no direct Singapore-Ireland comparison. Singapore's $100 million edge on tax savings is thin against a $2.67 billion total, and the filings do not show whether it is a new lead or an old one.