“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company may repatriate at least some of the billions of dollars of cash it holds offshore as early as next year,” Paul Hannon reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple holds about $215 billion in cash and other liquid investments offshore. It has long provisioned for an eventual repatriation of some of the funds. But Apple has also long suggested it wasn’t considering moving any of that money back soon — until there was corporate tax code changes in the U.S. that would make such a move less costly. Mr. Cook told The Washington Post in August that the company won’t bring the money back ‘until there’s a fair rate’ but said he was optimistic of corporate tax changes next year.”
“On Thursday, Mr. Cook, in an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE, appeared to go a step further, saying Apple could start to move some of the profits it has earned from its international operations to the U.S. next year,” Hannon reports. “‘We provisioned several billion dollars for the U.S. for payment as soon as we repatriate it, and right now I would forecast that repatriation to occur next year,’ Mr. Cook said in the interview.”
“Companies based in the U.S. are subject to 35% corporate tax rate on global profits when they bring that money home, though they can also get tax credits for payments to foreign governments. Many executives, including Apple, have said that rate is unfair,” Hannon reports. “The company reported in 2014 an effective tax rate of 26.1% on its world-wide profits, including the foreign tax provisions that are unpaid, a level Mr. Cook described as ‘reasonable.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s not do another “one-time-only” (smirk) repatriation holiday. Let’s fix the broken U.S. corporate tax code instead. Let us eschew the easy way out, that fixes nothing in the long run, and choose to do the hard work instead.
SEE ALSO:
With next U.S. President, Apple’s cash may soon be on its way home – August 25, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook presses for U.S. corporate tax reform, says no repatriation without fair rate – August 15, 2016
Donald Trump plan calls for cuts in corporate taxes, personal income tax rates – August 9, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook has billions of reasons to raise money for the GOP – June 29, 2016
Debt-free Apple to take on debt to avoid huge U.S. repatriation tax hit – April 26, 2013