Workers at the Apple campus in Cork. Image: Apple
€2,000 stock windfall for Apple Cork employees as tech giant repatriates cash to US.
Apple is to pay $38bn in US tax payments on the $252bn in overseas cash once held by some of its Irish subsidiaries.
According to CEO Tim Cook, Apple is already the largest US taxpayer, and a payment of this size would likely be the largest of its kind ever made.
As well as repatriating the cash to the US, Apple is understood to be planning to open a new campus at a location that will be announced later this year.
“Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the US economy,” said Cook.
“We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible.”
So, what do you need to know?
1. Apple wants to emphasise its economic impact in US
Source: Apple
Apple is expected to invest around $349.9bn in the US over the next five years, and create 20,000 new jobs in the country through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one.
It represents one of the largest corporate spending plans since the passage of a tax cut signed by the Trump administration that reduced the US corporate tax rate from 35pc to 21pc.
Apple had been under increasing pressure to make US investments since the 2016 presidential campaign in which US president Donald Trump attacked the iPhone maker for making products in Asia.
Apple has no plans to change its manufacturing strategy but has begun to emphasise its economic impact in the US.
2. Apple employees in Cork are set for a tidy windfall
It has also been reported by Bloomberg that an undisclosed number of Apple employees will receive stock bonuses worth $2,500 each.
A number of employees at its 6,000-strong Cork operations, many long-serving, look set to receive a stock windfall worth more than €2,000 after the cash is repatriated to the US.
The bonus will come in the form of restricted stock units.
3. Apple’s quarterly cash flow won’t be bruised by tax payment
Apple moved most of its $252bn cash held outside the US to Jersey at the end of 2014 as a result of new laws that meant Irish-registered companies could no longer be deemed “stateless” for tax purposes.
The tech giant is understood to have set aside $36.3bn in anticipation of tax payments on its foreign cash so that payments would not impact its cash flow this quarter.
