“Apple is under so much pressure in Washington over its offshore cash that it’s doing things it almost never does,” Anna Palmer and Tony Romm report for Politico. “CEO Tim Cook is coming to Washington to testify in front of a panel of senators about stashing more than $100 billion overseas, rather than sending a lower-level executive.”
“He will offer Congress Apple’s ideas for comprehensive tax reform — an unusual move for the company into the world of policy,” Palmer and Romm report. “And Cook is even talking with D.C. reporters ahead of his visit, including Politico in a rare interview. ‘We don’t have a large presence in Washington, as you probably know, but we care deeply about public policy and believe creative policy can be a huge catalyst for a better society and a stronger economy,’ Cook said in the interview. He also defended his company’s conduct. ‘I can tell you unequivocally Apple does not funnel its domestic profits overseas. We don’t do that. We pay taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S., and we pay every dollar that we owe. And so I’d like to be really clear on that,’ Cook said.”
“Tuesday’s hearing will be political theater at its finest — senior senators on their home turf looking to crucify a high-profile executive for the cameras, with little legislative action ever to result from it,” Palmer and Romm report. “Veteran tech lobbyist Bruce Mehlman said the entire system needs to be overhauled. ‘The tax system is broken; it’s not competitive,’ Mehlman said, noting that Apple faces far greater taxes than its tech competitors, like Korea-based Samsung. ‘The policymakers made the code, and it’s not nearly as flat, simple and logical as it should be, so companies across all sectors do what they can to minimize [their] tax burden and maximize research and product development. Tech is no different.'”
Much more in the full article here.
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Man’s gotta point. You go Tim!
THIS change is good. I’m looking forward to watching.
Page 2 is a good read and should be shouted from the rooftops.
Why a “bag” of dicks though? –
Louis CK
I was in Spain the other day. Wonderful country. Nice people. Nice weather. Intelligent, since most that I saw we’re carrying iPhones. Where the fuck did you come from?
Oops, Armondo disappeared! 🙂
they keep this crap up, will move their HQ offshore too, it’s pointless to be in business under The Messiah.
Amen
That’s why the stock market is near its all time high and corporate profits are higher than at any point in history. And that’s despite the biggest recession in a century AND despite the Repubs trying to impose the now discredited austerity model on the country AND despite the Repubs holding the country to ransom at every opportunity they get if there’s a chance they can harm the President.
Austerity is discredited? When did this happen? I never got the memo that aligning spending with what you take in was discredited. I guess I should open 27 new lines of credit and SPEND SPEND SPEND like the world is coming to an END END END.
President Obama cares nothing for what happens to this country after he leaves office and the smoldering wreck he has made of our financial well being long term. He’s a short term image based all about him and his cronies president. He’s popular because most people in the country do not really know what’s going on nor care.
It has been discredited. On a government level, not on a personal level. People cannot print money or levy taxes. So austerity makes sense for a person not at a government level only when it is in a recession or worse. Read the Financial Times, The Economist, latest blogs from the IMF Chief economist.[“leftist writers”(sarcasm)]
And even the stupid study by 2 economists that had several Excel mistakes, the ONLY formal study that tried to prove that government austerity works in a recession. Those 2 economists are a laughingstock now. Even by smart conservatives
if I were you, I’d not reference globalist banksters when discussing what is the best monetary policy for the United States. It’s like quoting Goebbels on Jewish immigration policies for Israel.
Can you name an example of of country going down the road of austerity that came out ahead? Leave to the rich to say cut services to all and cut taxes on me. We as a country got here by cutting our income (taxes). It’s basic economics. Reduce your income to the point you can’t meet your debt payments and you will be in big trouble soon.
You’re thinking of Bush, remember. He;s the one that sent unemployment from 5% to nearly 8% and climbing in his last year in office. The stock market lost almost half it value by the time he left office and continued to fall to a bottom of about 6500.
The only spending done was to keep the country from going into a depression, bank bailouts, auto industry bailout, stimulus just before Bush left office and afterwards.
You and your type are angry and disillusioned because it is a black man correcting the sins of a white man and you just can’t bring yourself to accept that so you surround yourself with hate and lies.
Ahem.
Obviously, your disdain of the so called ‘Repubs’ blinds you from objective thought.
Allow me catch you up on a few issues facing the party in power:
• IRS scrutiny of conservative groups, while giving a pass to liberal groups before an election.
• As reported by AP, auditing of hundreds of free press journalists critical of the administration.
• Benghaiz ever changing story revelations where four lives were lost, unlike Watergate.
• ‘Fast and Furious’ debacle.
While the stock market is at an all time high, a lot of Americans face declining wages, unemployment, foreclosures, higher retail prices and taxes.
We’re moving into a third world country economy as the middle class declines. Just look up how many Americans pay federal income taxes and the record number of people on disability.
I’m sure record trillions in debt does not concern you unless a ‘Repub’ was in office.
‘Discredited austerity model’ is false and we need MORE of it. Are you aware in some instances 25 or more government agencies are funded to solve the same problem, which BTW, never gets solved?
If there’s a chance the government can do better for all citizens, in all parties, GREAT! But it needs serious work at the moment …
The IRS scandal was discovered by the US treasury and disclosed publicly by the IRS themselves. Check and balances at work. The conservative groups requesting tax exempt status faced delays but none have been denied. Furthermore the IRS was not investigating conservative individuals just because as some of the right are claiming. Two people have resigned and there will be an investigation.
Last year when the story about the US stopping a airline bomber story came out in the press using a sophisticated bomb, the republicans charged the Obama administration and the Attorney Gen office of leaking this classified info. They wanted somebody’s head. Now the AG office took action because of the sensitive nature and took records of outgoing and incoming phone numbers only made from 20 phone numbers. There was no phone tapping. There as to be a balance otherwise will have to start profiling people as the republicans wanted to do after 9/11.
Benghaiz, there is nothing there there in terms of the administration dictating and editing comments. Just recently ABC news reported that this and that was said by two government employees. The administration released the email that contradicted what ABC had said from an anonymous sources. This week the rep had further hearing on Benghaiz about emails they had for almost 3 months. Nothing new found. Then you have Beck’s lunacy conspiracy theories about running guns to the Muslim brotherhood.
The Fast n Furious was a program under the Obama administration similar to a program under Bush called Operation Wide Receiver run by the ATF in Arizona. Once the it was discovered what that program was doing, gun walking same as under the Bush admin, it was shut down AG Holder. There were about dozen agents from the Justice dept and ATF that received discipline. These operations were run by the ATF and several in the Arizona field office lost their jobs.
First, I want to point out that you just brought completely unrelated points to make your argument. I’m not defending Obama, but to act as if Bush killing the economy, is ok because Obama’s flaws in office are on the same level is just absolutely ridiculous. Secondly, I would also like to point out in defense of all presidents that not everything that happens in office is because of the president. The IRS scandal has absolutely nothing to do with Obama other than they favored him. The Benghazi situation is without a doubt another awful example of poor decision making, however, the decision was not made by Obama himself. His only mistake was hiring someone who did a poor job in this case, which all employers do at some point or another. Does this make him a terrible president? Call it what you want, but clearly you have no idea what it would be like to be in the presidents seat. They have millions of things to take care of, but only so much time and you are forced to trust other people to do the right thing in your name. Lastly, next time you try to bash anyone in any office, please try to make some argument with a legit comparison. “Apples to apples” as one would say.
you are certifiable.
Certainly tax reform is needed. Best wishes, Tim.
Why the fuck is Tim Cook doing this? Get out of this shit Tim. Just focus on technology. Politics is simply a rabbit hole with no end, nothing good will come of this. Waste of time.
Don’t you have anything better to do? Like getting new products to market?
Oh, Crap. There goes AAPL again – every time Tim appears in public, every time – we get proof that the problem with the company and the value of its shares is that Wall Street, institutional investors, and smart investors have ZERO faith in the company’s CEO to lead.
Yeah, you could be right. Again. But I think he needs to do this. Apple, like most other companies who do business overseas, does it as economically as possible. Legally I hope. Time will tell. If it’s done unscrupulously that will come out. But Tim seems to be very adamant about Apple paying all taxes due. So I will give him and Apple the benefit of the doubt. And let’s face it, for the most part he is going to be in a room full of crooks. I say for the most part because I’m not a complete pessimists regarding politics. I believe that at least 25 to 30% of the politicians in Washington DC are pretty much honest. Nah, just kidding. Maybe 10%. And maybe AAPL won’t take a nosedive next Tuesday? Nah, just kidding.
“Wall Street, institutional investors, and smart investors have ZERO faith in the company’s CEO to lead”
I’d agree with all but the “smart investors” part. For smart investors (those that don’t panic when things *appear* to be less than optimal and don’t run into the night when the “common wisdom” is negative based on little or no facts, but rather look at the long trends and look at the actual financials) the jury is still out.
For “smart investors” the story will be told about Tim Cook within the next six to nine months.
This is what all the bs about Apple is about. They have so much cash its starting to piss people off.
well, that’s TOUGH SHIT…they earned it by producing excellence and not from the point of a gun collected by the IRS.
Tim is a good CEO. I’m glad he’s doing this.
Me too, although I hope he doesn’t pull punches. His intellect against a panel of senators should be something fun. But I fear he will remain the gentleman throughout, when what I want is for him to take a cue from Tony Stark!
I am reminded of Steve Job’s presentation and Q&A before Cupertino’s City Council where he pretty boldly told the council that he wasn’t averse to moving headquarters to a different city and paying their taxes instead…
I know Tim is too mature to want to strike out at these US Senators in the same fashion, but what a cheer would be heard throughout the land if he called their bluff!
How about Cook gets his ass moving on getting new products and software out of the door instead of sucking Washington’s cock?
Offensive language, seriously.
The problem isn’t taxation. The problem is they “can’t” spend it on anything to reduce taxes. Dividends and buy backs are paid from after-tax profits. If Apple brought the money into the US and spent it they wouldn’t pay taxes on it. So, raise wages, Apple, if you don’t want to spend the money on taxation. Same with all corporations. Higher wages are better than higher stock prices. The higher the OPEX the lower the taxes.
Echos of Romney. He wasn’t voted in, but perhaps some of his best ideas will make it into law, like improving the tax and regulation situation for businesses, especially small businesses. I won’t hold my breath, though, especially with all the folks out there who are talking like M Lindley.
I agree with Tim here.
And yes, most if these hearings seems to be leading to nothing. But they can be fun and interesting.