Apple paid less than 4 million euros in tax in France in 2021 for its stores

3.7 million euros. This is the very low amount of taxes paid by Apple in 2021 by the French subsidiary of Apple in France. According to our information, according to the results of Apple Retail France, closed on September 30, 2021, Apple paid slightly more tax last year than in 2020, the year for which the apple firm had not settled than 2.8 million euros for the activity of its Apple Stores. A derisory sum for the former world’s largest capitalization, with 2,200 billion euros of capitalization currently.

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This tax depends on the result of the subsidiary of Apple in France which manages all the sales activity in the store of the firm at the apple. Last year, the Cupertino company made a very modest profit: 9.8 million euros. He too is up slightly. In 2020, Apple only made 9 million euros in profit.

Quite surprisingly, Apple’s turnover fell last year in France, from 708 million in 2020 to 565 million in 2021. A bad patch for the manufacturer of the iPhone and Macbooks air? No way. In reality, this accounting change hides a clever mechanism put in place during the COVID-19 crisis. “Some of the employees in the stores, which have long remained closed, changed jobs during this period, explains Albin Voulfow, representative of the company’s CFDT union. These employees answered calls in France and made sales by telephone.” And bingo, Apple’s Internet sales, like sales made by telephone, are not counted in France. But in Ireland where Apple has its European headquarters in Cork. And where incidentally taxation is softer.

It is precisely this minimal tax that prompted the European Union to condemn Apple to repay 13 billion euros in tax arrears to Ireland in 2019. Before the appeal benefits Ireland. According to the Commission, Apple benefited from a tax rate on its European profits in Ireland of just 1% in 2003, which fell to 0.005% in 2014.

However, the employees of the American giant will still benefit from its good economic situation. The participation for each employee will be 3,500 euros on average for the year 2021. For the most important salaries, this can go up to 7,000 euros.

Gafa tax probably settled

This inventory of Apple’s situation in France is necessarily incomplete. It is impossible to know what is the real amount of sales of the firm of Tim Cook in France, in addition to those made in its Apple Stores, because the apple brand does not communicate on the subject. No more than the detail of the number of Apple Watches sold for example.

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To be complete, Apple most likely pays the Gafa tax, implemented in 2019 in France. This is an amount of 3% on the turnover achieved in the country by the digital giants, which exceed 750 million euros of global activity. Based on the accounts published by Apple Retail France last year, this would amount to nearly 17 million euros for last year. This would justify the existence of this new mechanism, compared to the very low amount paid in traditional corporate tax. Thus Apple would pay 4.5 times more tax under the Gafa tax than under its traditional corporate tax in France.

Apple has another subsidiary in France, Apple France, which does not manage the sale of Apple Stores. The latter saw its tax increase to 43.6 million euros in 2021, against 39.2 million in 2020.

Contacted on the subject, Apple declined to comment on this information.