{"id":89732,"date":"2025-10-20T09:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89732\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:39:08","slug":"apples-nz-operation-returns-to-growth-in-a-recession-hit-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89732\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple\u2019s NZ operation returns to growth in a recession-hit market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple does have boots on the ground in Auckland, but with a focus on firmware and engineering roles – a flow-on from its $100 million-plus purchase<\/a> of Kiwi wireless charging start-up PowerbyProxi in 2017.<\/p>\n

None of the parties will comment on the arrangement this year but the accounts indicate the tax again being sucked across the Tasman.<\/p>\n

Apple Sales NZ paid tax of $13.24m, before adjustments at the Australian corporate tax rate of 30% on its pre-tax profit of $44.1m -up from 2024\u2019s $38.1m.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s corporate tax rate is 28%. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for Apple said, \u201cApple pays tax in every country we do business, including New Zealand\u201d. <\/p>\n

Beyond corporate tax, Apple products are subject to GST and local salaries to PAYE. <\/p>\n

ASNZ\u2019s largest expense was related party purchases from its \u201cimmediate parent\u201d (Apple Pty) of $1.048b, followed by $49.5m to other unnamed related parties. <\/p>\n

On top of that $882,000 went to expenses charged by ASNZ\u2019s \u201cultimate parent\u201d (Apple Pty owner Apple Inc).<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Australian Tax Office said, \u201cThe ATO is unable to comment due to our obligations under taxpayer confidentiality laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

An Inland Revenue spokeswoman said ASNZ\u2019s returns fell under the confidentiality restrictions of Section 18 of the Tax Administration Act 1994.<\/p>\n

Tight market<\/p>\n

Market tracker IDC reported a tight overall global market for Apple\u2019s largest category – smartphones – in the June quarter, with 1.0% year-on-year growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smartphone market remained positive. However, uncertainty fuelled by tariff volatility, ongoing macro-economic challenges such as forex instability, unemployment and inflation across regions have tapered demand, making consumers deprioritise spending on smartphones,\u201d IDC said.<\/p>\n

Apple will be looking to its latest handsets, including the iPhone 17 series and the new iPhone Air, to help boost growth. <\/p>\n

In New Zealand, initial demand appeared strong, some models selling out<\/a> in the first days after their September release.<\/p>\n

It will be a while before the full sales story is revealed, however. Apple Inc\u2019s next quarterly financials, due on October 30, will only capture a couple of weeks of the new model\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple does have boots on the ground in Auckland, but with a focus on firmware and engineering roles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[836,9092,29652,67646,138,10668,26217,1644,3499,78,225,111,139,69,6379,17286,67645,12971,6443,7493,8603,61,379,80],"class_list":["post-89732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-836","tag-against","tag-apples","tag-backdrop","tag-business","tag-economic","tag-edged","tag-financial","tag-growth","tag-in","tag-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ongoing","tag-operation","tag-recessionhit","tag-returned","tag-returns","tag-revenue","tag-slump","tag-to","tag-year","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}