Apple Avoided Billions in Taxes, Congressional Panel Says

[KamaAina]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-avoided-billions-taxes-congressional-210553640.html

Some of these subsidiaries had no employees and were largely run by top officials from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., according to Congressional investigators. But by officially locating them in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless – exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.

In 2011, for example, one subsidiary paid Ireland just one-twentieth of 1 percent in taxes on $22 billion on pretax earnings from various operations; another did not file a corporate tax return anywhere and has paid almost nothing on $30 billion in profits since 2009....

Atop Apple’s offshore network is a subsidiary named Apple Operations International, which is incorporated in Ireland but keeps its bank accounts and records in the United States, and holds board meetings in California.

Because the United States bases residency on where companies are incorporated, while Ireland focuses on where they are managed and controlled, Apple Operations International was able to fall neatly between the cracks of the two countries’ jurisdiction.

Bear in mind that they aren't paying California state tax, either. Which might help to explain why we've been through a decade of devastating budget cuts.

[mike_c]

1. not only is this perfectly legal, but any corporation that did not take advantage...

...of every loophole and crack to avoid taxes would be subject to share holder litigation. The problem is capitalism, plain and simple. The ethics of greed.

[indepat]

2. If only it were possible for the Congress to close these loopholes so such shenanigans were not

legal.