“With the U.S. Senate reportedly finishing an investigation into how Apple and others dodge taxes, and with Apple fighting for an officially sanctioned tax holiday, it’s worth taking stock of Apple’s tax liabilities,” Ryan Tate reports for Wired. “Dealing with the tax man, it turns out, could cost the company upward of $28.5 billion or send it on a shopping spree abroad.”
“Even as Apple lobbies for corporate tax amnesty… Apple’s big tax liabilities are important considerations when thinking about the company’s vaunted cash and securities hoard, which reached $121.3 billion three months ago,” Tate reports. “Fully $82.6 billion of that money was held by Apple’s foreign subsidiaries, which collect much of Apple’s profit as part of a popular tax avoidance scheme in which offshore subsidiaries hold a tech company’s intellectual property and the U.S. parent then licenses the intellectual property back. Thanks to such maneuvering, Apple paid just 1.9 percent on foreign earnings in its last fiscal year.”
Tate reports, “Apple has been hoping a tax holiday will free up its overseas assets. Along with other big names in tech like Google and Microsoft, Apple is part of the ‘WIN America Campaign,’ which reportedly hired 160 lobbyists to push its stated agenda of repeating the ‘one-time’ 2004 corporate tax holiday bestowed by Congress… Apple, which did not respond to requests for comment, defended itself to The New York Times by saying ‘in fiscal 2012 we paid $6 billion in federal corporate income taxes, which is 1 out of every 40 dollars in corporate income taxes collected by the U.S. government.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: “Tax dodge” is a loaded term. Apple, like any competent company, practices tax avoidance, which refers to reducing taxes by legal means, not tax evasion which is illegal, willful non-payment of taxes.
It’s ironic that Congress needs an “investigation” (read: “yet another dog and pony show”) into tax avoidance when Congress is the reason for the loopholes that permit tax avoidance in the first place.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple paid $6 billion in U.S. federal income taxes, 1/40th of all corporate income taxes collected by U.S. government in 2012 – January 5, 2013
Google, Apple, eBay shouldn’t pay taxes – people should pay taxes – November 25, 2012
So how much did Apple really pay in taxes? – November 1, 2012
Apple’s showdown with the U.S. government over taxes on offshore cash – July 13, 2012
Apple‘s $74 billion tops list of U.S. tech companies’ overseas cash – July 9, 2012
Apple’s dividend move puts spotlight on foreign cash holdings, repatriation tax reform – March 20, 2012
Apple: Good start; and what about the overseas cash? – March 19, 2012
Apple’s foreign cash hoard piles up: $54 billion and rapidly growing – January 11, 2012
Senator John McCain eyes Apple’s $54 billion overseas cash pile – November 3, 2011
Google joins Apple in push for U.S. repatriation tax holiday – October 3, 2011
Apple lobbies Obama for tax holiday, wants to bring overseas bounty home – August 24, 2011
U.S Senate Democrat Schumer allies with Apple, other multinationals on repatriation tax talks – June 21, 2011
U.S. companies push for tax break on foreign cash – June 20, 2011
Apple, Oracle, Duke Energy, others organize lobbying blitz for tax holiday – February 17, 2011
