“Sen. Tom Coburn said Tuesday that he was ‘livid’ about a New York Times report that described how tech giant Apple has legally evaded billions of dollars in corporate taxes each year,” Darius Dixon reports for Politico. “‘Absolutely, I’m livid about that,’ the Oklahoma Republican said of his frustration with Apple on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.'”
“‘First of all, we have a tax code. Why should Apple pay at 10 percent and some other company that can’t export their technology… why are they paying 35 percent?’ he said. ‘What’s happening to us right now on our system is everybody that’s really successful worldwide is keeping their capital out of here and that capital is being invested somewhere other than America,'” Dixon reports.
MacDailyNews Take: No shit we have a tax code, Sherlock. And, no shit it’s FUBAR. And, no shit you shouldn’t be trying to tax profits that Apple made and upon which Apple was likely already taxed offshore. And, guess what, dumbass, er… Senator, Apple didn’t pay 10% in taxes, the shitastic New York Times regurgitated a press release from an at least equally idiotic “think tank” that either screwed up or massaged the data in order to make Apple look bad (see related articles below). Apple Inc.’s effective tax rates were approximately 24.2%, 24.4% and 31.8% for 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.
We’re rapidly getting to the point where we’d applaud Apple if they’d simply move the company out of the USA. Why the ultimate American Success Story should stick around to have the mentally deficient of America shit all over them is beyond us.
Dear dumbass, er… Senator (we keep doing that for some reason): Do your research. Apple reports to the SEC, not to mention the IRS, with much regularity. The New York Times reported bad data. This is certainly not a unique occurrence. This you must know. If not, how the hell did you get elected? Using the New York Times as your basis for so-called lividity makes you sound like a moron, even if your general point – the need for tax reform – is sound.
Dixon reports, “Coburn also said that he will work with Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a senior member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, to study tax havens.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh joy, a government study. The magnificent results of which would amount to absolutely nothing if you ignored the wasted time, the wasted energy, and – ahem – the wasted tax dollars.
Dixon reports, “On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Apple had evaded billions of dollars in corporate taxes by setting up subsidiaries in low-tax or tax-free states and countries around the world.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Evaded?” Mr. Dixon, you lie.
As we stated rather plainly in response to the New York Times hit piece on Saturday: “Every major corporation tries to minimize its taxes, of course. Maximizing profit is every publicly-traded company’s fiduciary duty to their shareholders. Tax avoidance is not tax evasion. What Apple is doing is perfectly legal. If you don’t like the current tax laws, elect people who agree with you and change the laws.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sigh.
Related articles:
Rush Limbaugh: New York Times targeting Apple; latest hit piece based on erroneous tax data – April 30, 2012
Does Apple know how to use its money better than the U.S. federal government? – April 30, 2012
Apple a bigger global power and more important than most nations – April 30, 2012
The New York Times blows it again: Incorrectly reports Apple’s tax rate – April 30, 2012
Apple to The New York Times: We are among the top payers of U.S. income tax – April 29, 2012
The New York Times: How Apple sidesteps billions in global taxes – April 28, 2012
The New York Times blows it, gets Apple CEO Tim Cook’s earnings spectacularly wrong – April 9, 2012
Dear Senator Coburn:
I read with horror an account of your being “livid” with Apple, Inc., for using the laws of the United States to pay as little in taxes as possible, and implying that somehow it is the fault of the successful companies that they can do better by their stockholders by investing overseas and not repatriating profits due to the laws in the USA which place an onerous tax burden on that activity.
It seems to me that you in the Congress have no one to blame for this but each other. We average citizens cannot write and enact laws; you can. We average citizens do not make the schizophenic tax code, nor do we hand down the wildly varying decrees concerning it (that’s done by an unelected agency).
Plain and simple, Senator: take the forest out of your own eye before you go looking for the subatomic speck in Apple’s. If you don’t like the results of the laws passed by your exclusive club up there on Capitol Hill, do something about it. But stop deflecting blame from where it belongs, and start taking responsibility for the actions of that group of which you are a member.
One would almost think you were a Democrat.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Hartman
Okay MDN removed TWO of my comments that point out the NYT article never mentioned “tax evasion” in any of the five pages. They even state that what Apple did was legal. Nuff said.
I’m not going to complain about the fairness of mine nor Apple’s federal taxes. I am going to scream that the tax code is simply ridiculous! I’m retired now. When I was working, tax calculations were pretty simple. Mostly wage income with a few bucks in interest and dividends. Four or five pages and wham! I was done. Now, in retirement, this years taxes including ‘worksheets’ was over 100 pages. No Sh!t Sherlock, 100 F-ing pages. As far as parties go, I’m apolitical. I think both major parties suffer from the same evils, campaign donations and lobbyists. The dirty little known fact is the lobbyists write most all the legislation to suit their masters (those with enough money to employ lobbyists) and the worst part is the elected legislators don’t bother to read what they vote for! My own non-political logic tells me that corporations shouldn’t pay taxes, the benefactors should. Also, corporations are NOT people and should not be treated as such. Corporations should be held to the original charter system as outlined and put in place by our founding fathers. As far as taxes being evil, most of us want certain services that are difficult to do privately, such as military defense, police, fire fighters, sewers, roads, schools, etc. The problems come in when the the lobbyists get involved. That’s when we end up with bridges to nowhere, schools that couldn’t teach a rabbit to hop and a military that buys weapons that don’t work, are overpriced, obsolete or redundant. These military weapons are basically being purchased to enhance the profits of some corporation and it’s employees. Truly, this amounts to welfare. Someone in an earlier post noted that what Apple does is practice tax avoidance and not tax evasion. I’m pretty sure that all us who are required to pay taxes play the same game, perhaps, albeit on a smaller level. So, until you are bellying up to the IRS bar by paying taxes with NO deductions or adjustments, don’t throw stones. Viva!