Microsoft‘s Irish subsidiaries paid dividends worth $41 billion (€36.3 billion) to its US parent across its 2024 financial year and the first months of 2025, as the tech giant’s Irish business continued to grow.
Newly filed accounts for Microsoft Round Island One (MRIO) UC show the company paid a dividend to its US parent, Microsoft Corporation, of $23 billion for the year ended June 30th, 2024. That was down from $38 billion a year earlier. Still, in a note to the accounts, it is revealed the company declared a further $18 billion subsequent to the conclusion of the financial year.
The dividends come as US president Donald Trump seeks to use tariffs to spur American companies to move operations back to the United States.
MRIO, a subsidiary of the global tech giant that holds investments in other companies in the Microsoft group, reported turnover that fell $14.6 billion to $23.5 billion for the year, primarily due to a decline in the income from investments in other Microsoft group companies.
MRIO‘s income comes primarily from intercompany dividends received from another Irish-based entity, Microsoft Ireland Research (MIR), which pays corporation tax in Ireland on its profits. As such a large part of MRIO‘s income is exempt from further taxation.
Profit for the year was $22.8 billion. The company wrote off $644.6 million in investments during the year.
Separate accounts for Microsoft’s main Irish subsidiary, Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (MIOL), show revenue rose by nearly $10 billion last year as the company’s business continued to grow.
MIOL, which markets, sells and distributes hardware and software products and services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, recorded revenues of $79.9 billion for the financial year ended June 30th, 2024. That was up from $69.9 billion in 2023, with the increase due to growth across all lines of the business, including intelligent cloud, personal computing, and productivity and business processes.
The bulk of the revenue comes from services, accounting for $62 billion, with the remaining $17.8 billion coming from products. The revenue figures also include $862 million of revenue from Italy.
Cost of sales at MIOL fell to $3.9 billion from $4.8 billion a year earlier. Its operating profit rose $211 million, clocking in at $3.72 billion, while pretax profit for the unit was $4.37 billion, up from $3.9 billion in the previous year. It paid no dividends to the parent company during the financial year.
Meanwhile, revenue at MIR, which licenses the rights to assets owned and developed by the company to others within the group, saw revenue rise by almost $11 billion to $62.9 billion as royalty income increased. That compared with a $3.8 billion rise in 2023.
That business recorded profit before tax of $33.9 billion, largely flat on the $33.8 billion recorded the 2023 financial year. This was driven by increases in royalty income, but a reduction in dividend income offset that. Operating profit was $31.1 billion.
Collectively, Microsoft’s businesses paid more tax in 2024, rising to $5.6 billion from $3.5 billion a year earlier.
The bulk of that was MIR, which paid $5 billion in tax, with $600 million coming from MIOL. The latter was equivalent to a tax rate of 14 per cent. MRIO paid just over $2 million in tax, a figure that was reduced partly due to the double taxation relief.
Microsoft employed more than 4,000 people at the end of the financial year, with MIOL accounting for 2,808 of that figure and a wage bill of $353.3 million, and a total remuneration bill of $467 million. MIR employs more than 1,200 people, at a total cost of $247.3 million.
The company is celebrating two milestones in 2025, with the wider group celebrating 50 years in business, and also 40 years in business in Ireland. Microsoft was recently awarded a special recognition award from IDA Ireland for its contribution, with Microsoft president Brad Smith accepting the award on the company’s behalf.
He reiterated the company’s commitment to Ireland, saying the country could “count on” Microsoft.
