“Apple has been named as the biggest corporate tax avoider in the United States after booking $218.55 billion (£171.6 billion) of profit offshore last year,” Keith Gladdis reports for The Daily Mail. “The tech giant was able to save $65.08 billion (£51.1 billion) that it should have paid in tax thanks to its convoluted arrangements.”
“The report revealed that last year three quarters of the Fortune 500 companies use subsidiaries in offshore tax havens where they sent a total of $2.42 trillion (£1.9 trillion) of income,” Gladdis reports. “In the US alone this amounted to $715.62 billion (£561.9 billion) in tax which they avoided paying.”
“The study was written in the US by pressure group Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy,” Gladdis reports. “Matthew Gardner of the ITEP said: ‘The hard fact is that the US tax code incentivizes tax haven abuse by allowing companies to indefinitely defer taxes on offshore profits until they are ‘repatriated.’ The only way to end this kind of tax avoidance is by closing the loopholes in the tax code that enable it.'”
MacDailyNews Take: In other words: What Apple does is perfectly legal.
Note: “Citizens for Tax Justice” is generally considered to be a left-wing organization. “Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy,” as well as the associated Citizens for Tax Justice, has been characterized as liberal.
“In August, the EU hit the company with a $14.39 billion (£11.3 billion) tax bill because it viewed the ‘sweetheart’ deals with Ireland as a breach of European law,” Gladdis reports. “Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has called attempts to make it pay more tax ‘political crap’ and has said that the company follows all relevant laws.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Tax avoidance is legal. And smart. And a major part of Apple’s fiduciary duty to shareholders.
Tax evasion, which Apple does not practice, is illegal.
The tax laws, especially for multinationals, are convoluted. Hence, so are Apple’s tax strategies when following the tax law labyrinth.
The reason Apple and so many other multinationals do not repatriate profits is because U.S. corporate taxes are too high.
Legally keeping your hard-earned money out of government’s wasteful, inefficient, unaccountable hands is a laudable practice.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. — Ronald Reagan
SEE ALSO:
Ireland’s Finance Minister Noonan: Apple tax appeal may take four years, maybe more – September 23, 2016
Apple’s EU tax nemesis Margrethe Vestager takes aim at other U.S. companies’ offshore profits – September 19, 2016
The ‘Brexit-Apple’ connection: What in the world was Margrethe Vestager thinking? – September 12, 2016
EU ministers line up to take tax bites out of Apple – September 12, 2016
Former EU competition commissioner: Vestager claim that Apple owes back taxes an incorrect use of EU law – September 2, 2016
Irish government to fight EU on Apple tax – September 2, 2016
Treasury accuses EU of trying to steal U.S. tax revenues with Apple decision – September 1, 2016
Irish residents opposed to EU’s tax demand of Apple – September 1, 2016
Apple Inc. pushes back against EU tax grab – September 1, 2016
Apple may repatriate billions of dollars next year after new U.S. President takes office – September 1, 2016
U.S. tax code allows for dramatic retaliation against EU overreach in Apple case – September 1, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook on EU tax demand: ‘No one did anything wrong here and Ireland is being picked on… It is total political crap’ – September 1, 2016
U.S. Treasury: The European Commission’s retroactive tax demands on Apple are unfair – August 30, 2016
EU demands Apple pay massive $14.5 billion in taxes plus interest – August 30, 2016
U.S. government warns EU: Do not hit Apple with a massive back tax bill – or else – August 25, 2016