Donald Trump has declared his intention to impose a personal tax on Apple, citing the company's failure to relocate iPhone production to the United States. In the 2024 fiscal year, Apple’s pre-tax profit amounted to $123.5 billion. The proposed 25% additional tax would result in an estimated $30 billion loss for the company.
It is worth noting that sales of technological products tend to fluctuate seasonally, meaning that the annual tax burden could exceed Apple’s net profit in certain quarters by as much as twofold.
Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo notes that it would be more cost-effective for Apple to continue manufacturing in India and pay the 25% tax to Trump than to fully relocate its production chain to the U.S., especially considering that such a large-scale relocation is technically unfeasible within a presidential term.
However, the main concern for Apple lies not just in the scale of the tax, but in the fact that the U.S. president has singled out one specific company as a target and is unlikely to relent as long as he remains in power.
Apple has already invested $500 billion in U.S. infrastructure, agreed to begin chip manufacturing at TSMC’s new plant in Arizona, and pledged to move parts of its production from Mexico to the U.S. Despite these steps, Apple may now become the first tech company to be penalized with a personal tax.
