Apple chief calls on US government to slash US corporate tax

[socialsecurityisAAA]

Source: The Guardian

Tim Cook warns Congress that he would refuse to repatriate $100bn stashed offshore unless US severely reduced its 35% tax rate

Apple has called for US corporate tax rates to be slashed after it admitted sheltering at least $30bn (£20bn) of international profits in Irish subsidiaries that pay no tax at all.

In a dramatic display of how threats from multinational corporations are driving down taxes across the world, chief executive Tim Cook warned Congress that he would refuse to repatriate a total of $100bn stashed offshore unless it acted to slash the 35% US rate.


He also revealed that Apple had struck a secret deal with the Irish government in 1980 to limit its domestic taxes there to 2%.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/21/apple-wants-single-digit-corporate-tax

[rurallib]

1. or maybe they could pay their fair share of taxes

shoot me if I ever buy an apple fucking anything.

[thelordofhell]

2. Charge Apple with tax evasion

Fuck you Tim Cook.......Pay your taxes

[Kablooie]

20. What they did is legal. We need to rewrite the tax laws if we want this to change.

The laws allows and even encourages tax shelters because it was written at the behest of rich companies.

Until this is changed, there is nothing that can be done legally.

[defacto7]

27. You're probably right.

It is strange to me how ethics and law have become equal. If it's lawful, it's ethical.

That's the magic of big business; forge your own ethical standard though politics and lawyers.

There's an arithmetic thing here.... ethics = law ... does that mean, lawyers and politicians are ethical?

That shoots down my paradigm. (sarc)

[dipsydoodle]

3. That is sheer arrogance

.

[Blue State Bandit]

4. Droid Responds...

[dipsydoodle]

14. Excellent

[GeorgeGist]

5. One Bad Apple spoils the rest.

[frylock]

6. pay your taxes, you greedy asshole

[Owl]

13. +1

[yurbud]

7. Does he know who his customer base is?

Maybe if some lefty directors said they'll stop doing Apple product placements in their movies, he'll shut up.

[nebenaube]

8. Nationalize Apple for Tax Evasion NOW!!!!! n/t

[former9thward]

25. You don't read the Constitution much, do you?

[TRoN33]

9. I'm currently holding my own iPhone...

Right now, I intended to go back to HTC with their new HTC One. Fuck you, Mr. Cook and fuck your company. Just go and fuck yourself. Your comments are considered as nihilistic punchline against the hard-working middle class Americans who barely could afford the monthly cable and electric bills.

[Doctor_J]

10. Since they already pay none, how exactly would this work?

Logistically, I mean?

What needs to happen is for guys like this to go to federal Michael Bolton prison for 1 year, keeping a blog of all the fun they're having. Send about 20 tax cheats away next month, and the culture of tax evasion would soon rethink its collective position.

[former9thward]

26. Already pay none???

Maybe in your world not in the real one. Apple pays more federal income tax than any other corporation or person. They pay $6 billion a year to the federal government. I guess in your world 6 billion = none.

[DallasNE]

11. The "$100 Billion Stashed Offshore"

Is mostly located in a Nevada bank so the money itself is not offshore, only the accounting for the money that is classified as "offshore". It is not much different than what the drug lords do to launder their money.

[tinrobot]

12. All while Bill Gates donates billions to charity.

I'm actually kind of glad I stuck with Windows.

(Yeah, I know Microsoft does not equal Bill Gates, but close enough...)

[defacto7]

28. But Linux is better!

and free.

[tinrobot]

31. Sadly, the applications I use don't run on Linux.

...or else I might.

I spent many years as a Unix systems engineer way back in the 80's. I still have a soft spot for grep and vi.

[defacto7]

32. Oh it's nice to hear those words...

vi, grep! Understand about the applications!

[24601]

33. Thereby forcing us to accept his judgment about how his money should be spent instead of paying

more into the tax base.

[olddad56]

15. Well, I call on the governemt to slash individual taxes

[TekGryphon]

16. It amuses me to no end when I see progressives with Apple products...

Apple is the anti-thesis of progressive ideology.

Their products are over-priced for the sole purpose of creating consumer perceptions of exclusion, used to have proprietary hardware, currently have the most restricted software market, and use proprietary accessories where-ever possible regardless of the impact on the environment.

Droid devices, meanwhile, use an open source platform that's used by a large variety of firms competing against each other. Their accessories are industry standard and can be used from one device to another, from one generation to another. The Droid's software platform is also open source and the most friendly of the Big 3.

Progressives with Apple products are either uninformed consumers, or raging hypocrites. Always have been, always will be.

[Brigid]

17. Why is no one in Congress . . .

Just flat out asking Cook, "And what does the hard-pressed, put-upon American taxpayer get in return? Nothing? I thought not.".

Paging Alan Grayson . . .

[liam_laddie]

18. Effing tired of the meme "highest tax rates in industrial world!"

That 35% rate is a chimera, a figment. Almost no corporation, maybe some small C's, pays 35%. Many huge multi-nationals pay zero US income tax, some even get refunds! I am fucking tired of the media figures NOT pointing this out, especially PBS and NPR who now remind me of regime propaganda outlets. The true effective tax rate on corps is less than 20% Here's a link to total tax take in OCED countries in 2009. [link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tax_Revenue_as_Share_of_GDP_for_OECD_Countries_in_2009.jpg|

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. That mixes in personal taxes (income and sales etc.) as well; here's corporate taxes

Not the clearest graph in the world - it's been lifted from a report.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22612041

It's "central government corporate tax revenues as % of GDP"; the US is the black line - 2nd lowest by the end, at about 2% of GDP. The EU line is a darkish purple, ending at abotu 3.4% of GDP.

[OhioChick]

19. Who the fuck does Tim Cook think he is?

"Tim Cook warns Congress..."

Fuck that. Pay your fair share, cheap ass.

[cstanleytech]

34. Well supposedly he is the head of Apple which is a powerful company

though with the loss of Steve Jobs I wonder how long that will last especially since Samsung and other phone makers have more than caught up with what the Iphone can do.

[okaawhatever]

22. I ow stock in Apple and I say boycott those mother f@#(s . We can slash the corporate rate, but we

should cut out the deductions. I don't kow if any companies actually pay 35%. Let's drop it to 20% but only give 5% worth of deductions. There was a protest in the UK and they wanted to close the 700 Starbucks stores. We can do the same.

[DeSwiss]

23. Of course they need a tax break.....

...besides, it's their government, right?

- They bought and paid for the people who run it.....

K&R

[ChromeFoundry]

24. Congress, tell Apple that they cannot bully the US Government and its citizens

Increase their taxes. Penalize them for gaming the tax code. Let them move to Ireland. Let their stock fall even more. Let everyone that invested in this company take on the loss.

Consumers need to warn Apple to reduce the cost of their overpriced, inferior products, manufactured by slaves and children. F'em!

[tblue]

29. Rotten to the core.

Hate to say it. I worked there for over 10 years. Used to be a more socially conscious company, at least nominally. It was supposed to be the company "for the rest if us" instead of the soulless corporate monolith.

Now I am ashamed of my old alma mater. It's not like they can't afford to pay what's fair. And it would be a really cool way to buy brand loyalty. Egad. They need a quick and nasty backlash. And some corporate upstart needs to show them up badly.

[jmowreader]

30. Why the hell would he repatriate it at all, unless the tax rate drops to zero?

Assume the US dropped the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 5. He has $30 billion parked in a place where he doesn't pay a nickel in taxes on it. Why the fuck would he take tax-free money and bring it back to the US so he can pay taxes on it?

Unless the Republicans decide to allow us to close this loophole, these hearings are nothing more than meetings of Governor LePetomane's Cabinet..."give the governor a harrumph!"

[Rosa Luxemburg]

35. Just think what their outstanding taxes would pay for?