Apple Australia almost doubles pre-tax profit during 2017
Apple Australia increased its pre-tax profit to AU$255 million for the financial year ended September 30, 2017, almost doubling the AU$132 million posted for the year prior.
Over the course of the year, revenue increased from AU$7.6 billion to AU$8 billion, which was made up of AU$7 billion in product sales and AU$975 million of services. The cost of sales rose in line with revenue, increasing by roughly AU$400 million to AU$7.3 billion.
Apple Australia parted with AU$182 million in income tax, a 42 percent bump on the AU$128 million for the year prior. This year's income tax was made up of AU$80 million in "current income tax", AU$90 million against the "under provision in respect of prior years" line item, and AU$12 million in deferred tax. For FY2016, Apple Australia paid AU$98 million in "current income tax", AU$58 million "under provision in respect of prior years", and received AU$29 million credit in deferred tax.
Once the income tax charges are taken into account, Apple Australia posted AU$72.4 million in net profit after tax, a significant increase on the AU$3.7 million posted in 2016.
The company, which has Apple Operations International in Ireland and Apple in Cupertino as "immediate and ultimate holding companies", paid only AU$22 million in dividends, compared to AU$212 million last year.
In November, Apple posted its fourth-quarter results, with revenue growing by 12 percent year on year to $52.6 billion, and the first quarter of this year forecast to bring in $84 billion to $87 billion in revenue, and a margin of around 38 percent.
Thanks to the first quarter including the sales of the iPhone X, Apple is expecting it to be its biggest quarter ever.
Last week, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said a proposal for a "flagship" Apple store in Melbourne's iconic Federation Square has the support of the Victorian Labor government.
"Not everybody agrees with this, but would people have really preferred us to have said 'no, absolutely not, go and put your iconic Apple store up in Sydney?'" the premier said at the time.
More than 50,000 people have signed a petition against the plan to knock down the Yarra Building to make way for the store that bares a striking resemblance to the humble toasted sandwich.
Over recent months, Apple has also found itself in hot water with a section of its user base for limiting the performance of iPhones in order to extend battery life.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this month that Apple could have been clearer with its users when it deployed iOS 10.2.1 which introduced the feature.
Cupertino said earlier in January that in response to the Trump corporate tax cuts, it plans to repatriate some of its overseas cash pile, and will pay $38 billion to the United States when it does so.
At the same time, it will spend $30 billion on capital investment within the US, including $10 billion for data centres.
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