Maddness of the Laws

[pete_1967]

Apple chief calls on US government to slash US corporate tax

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.
...

Cook said the tax rate for repatriated money should be set "in single digits" to persuade companies to bring it back. Standard tax for US profits should be, he said, in the "mid 20s".

...

Cook's testimony to a Senate sub-committee investigating multinational tax practices largely confirmed its findings that Apple had taken tax avoidance to a new extreme by structuring these companies so they did not incur tax liabilities anywhere.

...

He was even defended by some members of the committee who accused Levin and Republican John McCain of "bullying" Apple. "I am offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing," said fellow Republican and presidential hopeful Rand Paul.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...-corporate-tax

[ocratato]

Well its fairly obvious that having multi-national firms without a corresponding multi-national regulator was going to be a recipe for a financial mess.

I wish the world good luck trying to extricate itself from this mess.

[smr54]

Apple's obeying the laws that congress created. Some of the comments in the Ars Technica article are fairly interesting.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/05...me/?comments=1

As one comment said, it's just grandstanding. I will stop there to hopefully avoid making this too political but this is more of an example of the complete incompetence of US politicians than it is of any wrongdoing by Apple. And this is being written by someone who has always considered Apple to be evil.

[pete_1967]

The article just happens to be about Apple as they seem to be the most proliferate with these schemes, however, every single multinational does it to certain extent, Google & Amazon being 2 biggest and worst ones alongside Apple.

Nor it's U.S. centric, or U.S. problem alone by any means.

[John the train]

Originally Posted by pete_1967

The article just happens to be about Apple as they seem to be the most proliferate with these schemes, however, every single multinational does it to certain extent, Google & Amazon being 2 biggest and worst ones alongside Apple.

Nor it's U.S. centric, or U.S. problem alone by any means.

Certainly Amazon have been getting some stick in the UK recently over incredibly low levels of corporate tax paid relative to their income from the UK market.

[pete_1967]

Originally Posted by John the train

Certainly Amazon have been getting some stick in the UK recently over incredibly low levels of corporate tax paid relative to their income from the UK market.

Yes, and Starbucks, Google et al. (pretty much all high-profile companies, and some individuals as well). But as smr54 mentions, for now it's just gesturing and I personally doubt anything will change. Just makes me feel sick that our governments keep letting this happening. And I own shares in Google & Amazon!

[sonoran]

From Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor (http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/):

On Apple, which pays $6 billion a year in income tax, leaving overseas profits overseas (which is quite legal):

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the
treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.
Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister
in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone
does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any
public duty to pay more than the law demands."

Learned Hand