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Tim Cook to Testify In Front of Senate Committee Over Apple's Tax Practices

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Apple CEO Tim Cook will testify in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation next week, Politico is reporting. The subcommittee is attached to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The hearing, titled "Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code - Part 2" will occur at 9:30AM on Tuesday, May 21 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

subcommittee.jpg
The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts.
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Representatives from Microsoft and HP testified on September 12 on the same topic.

Apple recently borrowed $17 billion in a bond offering, in part to return cash to shareholders without bringing some of its $100 billion overseas cash pile to the United States. If it were to repatriate that cash to the U.S., it would need to pay a more than $13 billion tax bill.

Article Link: Tim Cook to Testify In Front of Senate Committee Over Apple's Tax Practices
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/15/tim-cook-to-testify-in-front-of-senate-committee-over-apples-tax-practices/
Saladinos

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
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Too right. I hope the Government clamp down on these freeloaders!

Pay your fair share!
 
I

infinitech

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Oct 1, 2012
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An individual pays about 28% at the supposed middle class tax bracket I believe. Companies do provide jobs and that deserves recognition up front but their taxes pay for the infrastructure that enables american people to feel okay about owning their iPhone & iPad and MacBook and Macbook Pro and Apple TV and all their other iDevices.
 
Saladinos

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
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infinitech said:
An individual pays about 28% at the supposed middle class tax bracket I believe. Companies do provide jobs and that deserves recognition up front but their taxes pay for the infrastructure that enables american people to feel okay about owning their iPhone & iPad and MacBook and Macbook Pro and Apple TV and all their other iDevices.
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Companies don't "provide" jobs like free WiFi.

If they didn't employ anybody, they wouldn't exist. Providing jobs is an operating expense.
 
hobo.hopkins

hobo.hopkins

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
569
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Saladinos said:
Too right. I hope the Government clamp down on these freeloaders!

Pay your fair share!
Click to expand...

They're operating legally in order to maximise profit - that's what a business is supposed to do. If you don't like the law, then petition to have it changed; a company exploiting a legal - and not malicious - advantage is not them "freeloading." Hopefully hearings like this can illuminate that to the people who actually make law.
 
K

kingtj

macrumors 68030
Oct 23, 2003
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What a dumb attitude ....

Seriously, the problem here is the government tax code -- not Apple (or ANY of the other successful American businesses who are put in the position of it being far more financially wise to keep the money they earn overseas in overseas investments, rather than bringing it back here).

We've got an awful lot of people still living in some sort of fantasy-land if they think a business who makes millions of dollars in say, China or Germany, would just opt to lose a big chunk of that money "for the good of the United States citizenry" by transferring it back to U.S. banks!

When we started this whole "global economy" thing, it meant businesses will happily do business ANYWHERE on earth it's profitable to do so. Apple would rather spend their earnings on hiring more employees or building better facilities in these other nations with the money earned there, if all the U.S. govt. wants to do is tax it as it comes back here.


Saladinos said:
Too right. I hope the Government clamp down on these freeloaders!

Pay your fair share!
Click to expand...
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
Saladinos said:
Too right. I hope the Government clamp down on these freeloaders!

Pay your fair share!
Click to expand...

Freeloaders? Apple contributes more to the American economy than you would in 1000 lifetimes. Frankly, some of the tax code is completely overreaching. The more complex it gets, the more loopholes there are. Those with the resources to exploit it will. That's capitalism.
 
P

Pyrrhic Victory

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Feb 6, 2012
152
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Saladinos said:
Companies don't "provide" jobs like free WiFi.

If they didn't employ anybody, they wouldn't exist. Providing jobs is an operating expense.
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And if they didn't exist, nobody would have employment. It's a two-way street. Employers employ labor, labor works for employers.
 
Kaibelf

Kaibelf

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Apr 29, 2009
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Saladinos said:
Too right. I hope the Government clamp down on these freeloaders!

Pay your fair share!
Click to expand...

Enlighten me. You have products that are built oversees, shipped overseas with local tariffs, put in stores overseas, and purchased overseas as well as taxed by the local sales tax there. Why does the US deserve any of that, when it's been taxed already, and exactly who is the freeloader?

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JM-Prod said:
Apple can afford to pay tax. And their home nation needs it...
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I can't afford a new car. Hey I'll just take yours!
 
Saladinos

Saladinos

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Feb 26, 2008
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thelookingglass said:
Freeloaders? Apple contributes more to the American economy than you would in 1000 lifetimes. Frankly, some of the tax code is completely overreaching. The more complex it gets, the more loopholes there are. Those with the resources to exploit it will. That's capitalism.
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They also take more from the US economy than I would in 1000 lifetimes. They get more money in R&D tax breaks than I'll ever earn.

And then they go and pay some ridiculous low share of tax. That has an effect on me. It means I need to pay more (a lot more, since as you mentioned, they are on a much larger scale).

They may pay more in than I ever will, but they also do more damage than I ever could.

Freeloader (n)
A person who takes advantage of others' generosity without giving anything in return.
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Apple takes serious advantage of all the benefits the US (and other countries) give to them and their employees. We let them do business here and make profits here for one thing; no country is obliged to let them do that.

We let them do those things because they are supposed to pay a fair rate for those benefits. They don't. They are freeloading.
 
T

tongxinshe

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
1,064
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JM-Prod said:
Apple can afford to pay tax. And their home nation needs it...
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Apple does pay a big sum to IRS every year, for anything it operates directly in the US. For its earnings in other countries, it pays the regarding taxes in those countries. The estimated 13% is the extra part.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

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Nov 26, 2007
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Pyrrhic Victory said:
And if they didn't exist, nobody would have employment. It's a two-way street. Employers employ labor, labor works for employers.
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What of self employment, then? (I'm not at all suggesting that everyone should employ themselves, just that there is an alternative to being employed by someone else or being unemployed.)
 
pirg

pirg

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2013
618
0
Quick head count. How many here pay greater taxes than they're legally obligated to?
 
GFLPraxis

GFLPraxis

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,152
460
Saladinos said:
Apple takes serious advantage of all the benefits the US (and other countries) give to them and their employees. We let them do business here and make profits here for one thing; no country is obliged to let them do that.

We let them do those things because they are supposed to pay a fair rate for those benefits. They don't. They are freeloading.
Click to expand...

Seriously, explain to me how they are freeloading. If they build a product in China and sell it in Germany, and pay German taxes on it, why should they have to pay U.S. taxes on it too?

You'd think from the way you were writing that they were avoiding taxes on products sold in the U.S.. They're not. They are paying all fair taxes on U.S. income.

The U.S. wants to tax post-tax money.
 
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