Why President-elect Trump is singing Apple CEO Tim Cook’s praises

Yahoo Finance’s Jen Rogers and Pras Subramanian discuss Donald Trump’s latest comments about Apple and Tim Cook.

First, if tariffs and border adjustment taxes come online, it might be cheaper to make products here [in the U.S.]. Secondly, look at the numbers: Apple has $315 billion sitting overseas right now. If Trump agrees to cut the repatriation tax from 35% to 10%, it could save almost $80 billion, which is a 71% savings, so that’s a lot of factories right there, if you ask me. — Pras Subramanian, Yahoo Finance

 
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Direct link to video here.

MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve stated many times: Obviously, U.S. corporate taxes are too high.

Under the current U.S. corporate tax system, it would be very expensive to repatriate that cash. Unfortunately, the tax code has not kept up with the digital age. The tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free flow of capital… Apple has always believed in the simple, not the complex. You can see it in our products and the way we conduct ourselves. It is in this spirit that we recommend a dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code. This reform should be revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows the free flow of capital back to the U.S. We make this recommendation with our eyes wide open, realizing this would likely increase Apple’s U.S. taxes. But we strongly believe such comprehensive reform would be fair to all taxpayers, would keep America globally competitive and would promote U.S. economic growth.Apple CEO Tim Cook, May 21, 2013

SEE ALSO:
Apple could be able to pay just 10% tax to repatriate overseas profits under President Trump’s plan – November 9, 2016
Apple may repatriate billions of dollars next year after new U.S. President takes office – September 1, 2016
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

37 Comments

      1. Well, yeah, if you like killing babies, and cops, and think that mentally ill people pretending to be the opposite gender get to use the wrong bathrooms is a “right.”

        Normal people can’t wait to wake up in a world without Obama constantly screwing it up.

        1. Actually there were no dead people voting. Those were Martians and Venutians. They live among us and use their mental powers to get all the money. Trump isn’t smart enough to be a Martian but they like controlling him anyway.

  1. Trump will negotiate with Tim Cook to open factories in the US, and cut corporation tax rate down to 10% of $220 billion cash hoarding in overseas, which gives Apple $80 Billions to build factories in the US. If this great news happened, it would be a great victory for Trump to make “America great again”.

    1. How exactly? If Apple builds factories in the US you can be sure they’ll be highly automated. Requiring very little manual labor, most of which would be highly technical positions to keep the factory running smoothly. All you have to do is take a look at the factory where the Mac Pro is built and you’ll have an idea of what any other factory Apple built would look like.

      Bringing those “jobs” home will have very little impact on employment. And anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign is a joke. If you want to make America great again, you need to start with education. The educational system in the US is a complete joke when compared to almost every other industrialized nation.

  2. Tax rates could be negative and still the labor costs would prompt corporations to move production overseas.

    Oh wait, when you look at the corporate welfare that most corporations enjoy, many already pay no taxes in return fir the infrastructure they enjoy.

    What do protectionist tariffs accomplish? Higher costs to consumers. That may be appropriate in some areas, but it’s a dangerous card to play and it’s clear Trump does not have the mental capacity to think past the media impact of his tweets.

    1. President-elect Trump won the biggest election on the planet with both parties’ establishments and the mainstream media completely aligned against him while spending a small fraction of what Crooked Hillary blew trying to get back to the White House so she could live the good life on the taxpayers’ dime and continue the globalist charade that enriched her and her donors.

      Trumps “mental capacity” so fully dwarfs yours that it’s wholly unsurprising that you cannot comprehend it.

      1. Actually since he will never let anyone see his tax returns you will just have to take his word at every thing he says and does. Also Trump lost the election by 3 million votes. It was the gerrymandering of the republican party that faked his election.

    2. And, BTW, President-elect Trump’s tweets are “shiny objects” designed to distract mental midgets like you and those who make up the mainstream media while he gets what he wants done smoothly.

      1. I most certainly hope you’re right, but it is very difficult to believe that. Every time anyone says anything that may even in the most round-about way imply that Trump is less than perfect in any regard, he fires off a petulant tweet. As a strategy, it seems brilliant, if you are right. However, judging by the testimony of the people who had dealt with him over the past decades, it may in fact not be a strategy, but an impulsive reaction of an overly sensitive man without patience.

        1. It seems to me that Donald had his communications right. Examining Twitter usage overall, so many retweeted tweets are petulant or snarky. Twitter is an emotional, reactive, simmering medium—perfect for irascible figures like Donald. Hillary never simmered, or induced simmering in others. Heck, she apparently didn’t understand email, let alone security protocols, let alone social media. However, she did use a slightly older technology, the telephone, in accord with the precepts of decency outlined by Miss Manners, when she called Donald to congratulate him. I wonder if she used a landline. Maybe it was a Western Electric 500.

        2. Donald has his tweets exactly right … for a petulant child who has to have the worlds biggest ego, facts or no facts.
          Hillary did not play the American people for the idiots they are. She tried to reach people with facts and hope. Sadly, even though she won by 3,000,000 votes, we have a gerrymandered system that lets losers… take charge.

          PS, yes she has social graces. Trump only has swagger and boasting. Who needs facts. 🙂

        3. Well botvinnik since you seem to have infinite time on your hands, why don’t you do your own research. You doling out immature insults and political lies is quite tiring!

      2. 2014/16: You are correct, the tweets are shiny objects and yes, they do distract, but I would have to say they are often cringe-worthy. I’m a huge fan of the tweets sidestepping the filter of the media, but I wish that he would lose the triteness. We each have our own image/definition of “presidential” and unfortunately, more often than not his tweets don’t fit my definition.

        1. Trump is King material. You know, yell, proclaim, make stuff up, pretend the world does not exist… Trump style. Maybe he will take up cutting off a few heads to make his point. After all, any news that does not praise trump,,,,,, is fake news.

  3. I did not vote for Trump, but I hope and wish for Trump success in making America Great Again, because if he succeed meant that we Americans would be greatly benefit from it. If he sank we will sink along with him.

    1. Sadly, the very rich and their power buddies do not sink. Only us poor and middle of the road people are cannon fodder.

      PS, why does everyone think that America is not great?? Do we have to stamp some small country into the ground to be great? Do we have to take money advantage of people to be great??

    2. Curiously enough, large percentage of America doesn’t think like that. There is a very strong “Not my president” movement, and over the last eight years, most republican senators and congressmen vowed that their one single mission while in senate/congress was to make sure Obama is a single-term president; not to legislate according to the wishes of their constituents, not to help the president make the country better, not to work with the president; it was to obstruct him in any and every possible way, no matter what the constituents want, no matter what the issue. And quite many in the population were simply of the same attitude — “Not my president”.

      The political polarization of America is more-or-less complete. While at some time in the past, you could have a landslide victory of a republican, or a democrat, today, this is virtually impossible. The population is more-or-less evenly split (leaning democratic a bit, according to most recent presidential election popular vote), and the percentage of those who fall into the category of “swing voters” is rapidly shrinking, and has by now came down to single digits (i.e. below 10%). Not only that, but the two sides are now ideologically so far apart that it is literally impossible for them to find common ground in order to proceed as one country. Past eight years are an excellent example: half of the population genuinely believes that the country has been all but destroyed, with all the basic values obliterated, economy, domestic and foreign policy in complete disarray, unrecognizable from the glory years of the past. The other half of the country is looking at the eight years of the greatest presidency in history, with highest concentration of significant achievements, from social advances (repeal of DADT, marriage equality, etc), to the economic recovery from the deepest recession in generations…

      And with the new president, the divide only seems to be deepening, with the one side rejoicing at the “end of the eight year nightmare”, while the other side is gearing up for the “Not My President” protests… These views are positively irreconcilable and I can’t see how America can proceed from here as a whole.

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