“Members of the United States Senate are expected to sharply criticize Apple’s global tax tactics while questioning the company’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday,” Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski report for The New York Times. “Apple, one of the most profitable companies in American history, has shielded billions of dollars from tax collectors around the globe by moving revenue to offshore subsidiaries and taking advantage of tax loopholes, according to company documents and tax experts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Prove it, yellow journalist swine.
Duhigg and Kocieniewski report, “Apple has more than $100 billion in cash assigned to foreign subsidiaries, where it is not taxed by the United States. Some of those subsidiaries, though technically lodged in Europe, are fully controlled by Apple’s executives in Cupertino, Calif.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, where’s the proof of lawbreaking, you ham-handed hacks?
Duhigg and Kocieniewski report, “When Mr. Cook and other top-ranking Apple executives appear tomorrow before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, lawmakers are expected to question them on Apple’s use of tax loopholes and shell companies to escape paying corporate income taxes on much of its profit.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Operations International (AOI) is not a shell company. The existence of AOI does not reduce Apple’s U.S. tax liability.
Duhigg and Kocieniewski report, “Mr. Cook is expected to tell lawmakers that Apple is the largest corporate income taxpayer in the United States, according to a copy of his testimony posted online by the company. Apple, according to that testimony, paid nearly $6 billion in federal taxes last year, and ‘does not use tax gimmicks.’ Moreover, Mr. Cook is expected to call for a sweeping reform of the federal corporate tax code. In particular, he will call for lowering rates on companies moving overseas earnings back to the United States. ‘What he’s asking for is a reward for having gamed the system,’ said Edward D. Kleinbard, the former chief of staff at the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, and now a law professor at the University of Southern California.”
MacDailyNews Take: Or, Cook is simply be asking for a sane, logical corporate tax policy, as opposed to the pile of shit buried under a mountain of red tape that the U.S. currently offers those who power the economy and ultimately the obscenely-bloated, unsustainable U.S. federal government itself.
Duhigg and Kocieniewski report, “The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Senators Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and John McCain, an Arizona Republican, has been investigating technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, for years over complaints that such firms are taking advantage of an outdated tax code.”
Full article – Think before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: How much have these oh-so-important “investigations” (campaign commercials) cost taxpayers vs. how much, if anything, they have generated in additional tax revenues for these myopic ignoramuses to blow on pet pork barrel projects that are designed primarily to get them perpetually re-elected?
Term limits. (Oops, now we’ve done it – better get the esteemed Senators some new shorts.)
Oh, BTW: The U.S. Senate investigation found no evidence that Apple did anything illegal in avoiding taxes.
Related articles:
Google whistleblower reveals massive tax avoidance scheme; ready to hand over 100,000 emails to UK authorities – May 19, 2013
UK lawmakers challenge Google’s ‘smoke and mirrors’ on tax – May 16, 2013
U.S. Senate investigation found no evidence that Apple did anything illegal in avoiding taxes – May 20, 2013
Apple publishes full testimony to be given before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee – May 20, 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook to propose ‘dramatic simplification’ of U.S. corporate tax laws – May 18, 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook to propose U.S. tax reform for offshore cash – May 17, 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook goes on offense in Washington D.C. over $100 billion offshore cache – May 16, 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook at Senate Permanent Subcommittee over Apple’s offshore tax practices – May 15, 2013
Study: U.S. companies’ overseas earnings hit record $1.9 trillion – May 8, 2013
Unlike the US tax code, Apple is perfectly rational – May 7, 2013
Apple Inc.’s taxdodging ways – May 5, 2013
Apple, corporate taxes, and The New York Slimes – May 2, 2013
Apple avoids potential $9 billion U.S. tax bill – May 2, 2013
Debt-free Apple to take on debt to avoid huge U.S. repatriation tax hit – April 26, 2013
Apple’s massive $100 billion capital return program is a perfect tax arbitrage – April 26, 2013
Apple to tap a hungry debt market; strong demand likely from investors eager to get cash off sidelines – April 25, 2013
Debt-free Apple plans to borrow to finance massive capital-return program – April 23, 2013
Apple beats Street on EPS and revenue; ups quarterly dividend by 15%; ups buybacks to $60 billion – April 23, 2013
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
Tim Cook doing Tony Stark from Iron Man 2:
Look, you can’t have the tax money, you wrote the rules, you can’t take what is not rightfully yours. Too Bad we’ve build the American Dream Money Making Machine, you can’t have it. . . Take a page from our book: GIve people what they want and they will buy it. Good Night Dear.
MDN: Term limits
I love saying that.
If only…
This anti-corporate-pro tax-“fair” share- eat the rich rhetoric is all Obama and the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
MAC users – overwhelmingly Obama boosters.
Apple silicon valley – overwhelmingly Obama boosters.
The cognitive dissonance on this forum is palpable.
No rufus3698. You are clearly a newbie around here. So please do take your hate “MAC” (which actually refers to media access control, NOT Macintosh) hate speech and shove it. Enjoy! 😛
C-SPAN in the USA is covering Tim Cook’s hearing at the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. You can view the hearings at 9:30 AM ET from the C-SPAN.org page, or directly at:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/219084
Note that the above link is LIVE and may not be available after the event has completed. But the hearing will most likely be kept in C-SPAN’s library.
BTW: I’m hearing a few loud-mouth lout Senators stating garbage like “I’ve never seen anything like it!” when in fact the Senate already found nothing illegal about Apple’s actions AND we already know that other companies such as Google already use exactly the same method of minimizing the impact of US taxation on earnings made outside the USA. IOW: Propaganda event amounting to nothing IMHO. But we shall see what spin is put on the situation.
Total AUSTRALIAN Apple Turnover PA $6 BILLION AUD.
Total Turnover Apple Australia PA $1 BILLION AUD
Total Australian company tax $28 MILLION AUD.
Total Turnover Apple Stores Online & Retail (100% American owned) $5 BILLION AUD
Total Australian company tax NIL
Total Tax on Australian turnover $28 MILLION AUD. 0.466%