[asuffield]

Ah, I see. So what they're saying in this case is that 0.005% is the fraction of Apple's global non-US profits that was paid as tax in Ireland.

That's not the same thing as saying it was "a 0.005% tax rate". The issue is over what fraction of the non-US profits are taxable in Ireland, not over the tax rate.

[jsnell]

Whoa, I don't think they're saying that. "Apple Sales International" is not all non-US profits. It's a company buying Apple products from contract manufacturers in other regions and selling them in Europe. It would not be recording any revenue from sales in other regions.

The profits would then be the difference between the cost they bought those products for (+ things like the very substantial payments to Apple US for R&D), vs what they sold those products for.