Apple, the world's most valuable company, closed its fiscal 2012 with a whopping net income of $US41.7 billion, a jump of 61 per cent from the $US25.9 billion that the tech giant had netted in the previous year.

Again, the company brought smiles on its hordes of investors but U.S. taxpayers would likely raise howls of protests in knowing that Apple's tax payments were mere 1.9 per cent of its foreign earnings as of September 2012.

Citing Apple's latest regulatory filing, The Associated Press (AP) said on Monday that the tech giant has successfully adjusted down the tax dues for its international operations to $US713 million from the total of $US36.8 billion it collected in the global sales of its hotly coveted gadgets.

The firm saw its sales from territories outside of the United States spiking by as much as 53 per cent in the last 12 months that ended in September 2012, yet it adroitly manoeuvred to lessen its tax obligations from last year's 2.5 per cent.

Why the plummeting tax numbers, a boon of course for Apple, yet a bane for the U.S. government when the company's sales figures, both domestic and abroad, are going north?

Credit smart accounting practices on Apple's part, AP said, which allows the tech titan to keep the bulk of its overseas profits to locations where tax rates are considered a lot friendlier to business operations.

To date, Apple has stationed cash hauls of more than $US82 billion outside of America, based on the company's regulatory papers, and it remains not in breach of U.S. laws.

The accounting tactic, AP said, is perfectly legal and Apple is not alone as other big companies are employing too the model to maximise the profits that they could keep from the reach of the dreaded taxman.

Another technique used by Apple is the 'phantom branding' of its tax dues - mainly masquerading portions of the company's overall tax dues as liabilities, "which is subtracted from its profits even though it hasn't actually paid the taxes," according to AP.

Such 'compartmentalised' tax payments that Apple is obliges to pay could end up buried deep and likely to be converted as 'profit boosters' in future reports, which in Apple's case could easily amount to billions adding up to its already rich cash reserves.

Since 2009, Apple has racked up its overall profits by another $US10.5 billion directly owing to these circumvents, AP said on its report.