U.S. Senators Claim Apple Has Avoided Paying Billions in U.S. Income Taxes Ahead of Tim Cook Testimony

[-hh]

What most people do is to take straight forward deductions based upon the clear intent of the tax code.

Does this include the part where they falsify on their "Charitable Contributions"?

What Apple does is to make complex, bizarre money transfers and to employ convoluted business structures in order to skirt the clear intent of the tax code.

You've obviously never used 90% of the provisions in the US Individual Tax form, such as the deductions for energy efficiency (new windows, appliances, etc), or any of the depreciation provisions (which apply when you have capital assets under an LLC): it gets pretty complex pretty fast. Even just the proper documentation of retirement investments in a 401(k) ... which most gainfully employed heads of households now probably have ... is not a 1040EZ cake walk.

I said "most people"...

So you did. Unfortunately, "most people" aren't also in the top 10% of income to be a legitimate analogy: the mainstream equivalent would probably be something like a local small business.

For a coffee shop or deli, one of the very old business tax dodge tricks is to ring out the cash register a couple of times per day and neglect to report one of them on the books.

Another common small business tax dodge is the 'company car' and how it really gets used..."most" are quite creatively liberal with their mileage claims, as well as all of the service & repair bills, etc.

Similarly, "most" businesses have capital assets which involve the employment of the pretty damn convoluted depreciation deductions, as the US Tax code has several wrinkles in in that permit different methods (and "incentives")...oh, and as per my Accountant on my own convoluted out-of-State LLC, I apparently cannot not employ depreciation, either.

But to go back to individual taxes before closing out, have you ever checked the IRS Tax Code to see what the provisions are if you spend, say, 60% of your time outside of the USA, earning income in other countries? You might want to look, even if "most" people don't do this: it applies to everyone who is a multinational worker.

-hh

 

[sclawis300]

I don't care, but do you really think Apple is using these tax loopholes to save the consumer money?

not trying to save us money, but they will charge more if their costs go up.

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I said "most people". Therefore, the best you are doing is citing an exception that proves the rule.

Nice of you to ignore the first part of my post.

I said people pay for tax prep service. It is easy to fill out a tax return if you don't want to minimize your tax liability. Why would the majority of people pay for a service if they were not trying to pay fewer taxes.

Also, I didn't cite an exception. There are plenty more where that came from. I was just giving an example.

Here is another one. Why do most athletes live in Florida? Why does Lebron play for the Heat? Taxes. If people relocating their home isn't good enough for you then I don't know what will be.

 

[roland.g]

I hope you realize that Obama has cut the deficit by over half -- by about $800 billion -- since he took office. It's the fastest deficit reduction we've had since the end of WWII. All the while, protecting most of the tax cuts that the GOP insisted upon under Bush. As a nation, our tax rate is the lowest it's been in more than 60 years (source: Bruce Bartlett, former adviser to President Reagan).

Cutting spending when we are trying to come out of a recession and increase employment is retarded. You think that the government laying off more workers, and canceling contracts that American firms are performing to, is a good way to bring down unemployment? Please tell me that you don't vote in our elections.

OMGoodness. You believe the numbers you are trying to spin. As others have pointed out already, you don't actually know what you are talking about. But of course you blindly back the 'unaccountable' President. If you really understood the damage he does daily to the future of this country you'd be ashamed of yourself. I was not a Bush fan at all, and everybody wanted change after 8 years of him, however, Obama is doing such a bad job that he's starting to make Bush look good. Who would have thought that possible.