An acceptable level for Americans not for Corporations. Why should I pay more of % on my earnings, than Apple should pay on its earnings? I think 35% of 37.2 billion would help the country more than what just handed over to the IRS.
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Apple Lobbying for International Tax Amnesty to Bring Home Profits
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An acceptable level for Americans not for Corporations. Why should I pay more of % on my earnings, than Apple should pay on its earnings? I think 35% of 37.2 billion would help the country more than what just handed over to the IRS.
Boy I wish I could pay 5% on my federal taxes, is it too much to ask a company to pay something similar to working class Americans? Last time I checked an average single person in America making an ok wage($34-83k) pays in the 25% tax bracket, so if the Supreme Court says companies are people, then why can't they pay taxes like people?
Because taxes are bad, period. And this is a perfect example as to why they are bad. Money that could be circulating the US economy sits stagnant.
don't beleive it
The US has a 35% income tax...but NO corporation pays that. There are already so many loopholes and exemptions that most pay under 20%...even 10%.
Plus, corporations asked for this same treatment a decade or maybe it was 2 decades ago. All it did was go to shareholders and exec bonuses.
The companies bringing that money home to help with the defecits would also help the economy.
The claim that this will help with jobs is dubious.
The US has a 35% income tax...but NO corporation pays that. There are already so many loopholes and exemptions that most pay under 20%...even 10%.
Plus, corporations asked for this same treatment a decade or maybe it was 2 decades ago. All it did was go to shareholders and exec bonuses.
The companies bringing that money home to help with the defecits would also help the economy.
The claim that this will help with jobs is dubious.
Completely agree. Corporations and people should pay the same. 5% I could stomach. Just enough to pay for roads and critical services. I don't want to pay for anyone else's health care, unemployment benefits, or retirement.
Google paid only 2% last year.
And yes, the claim is dubious. It's completely contingent on the corporations reinvesting it in their workers.
Oh the irony.
So Apple does not want to pay 30 ish % tax on their money.
Funny, the figure seems strangely familiar
I <3 irony
Correct if I'm wrong, but Apple has ALREADY paid taxes on this money in the countries where it was earned... why should they get taxed at the full-rate on it twice?
And if workers go on strike, the factory is producing nothing. If the company reduced their income and increased the workers' salaries, it would get the factory working again. Any company can afford to double the salary of a small group of their workers but if it did so for all its workers, most companies would not be able to survive.
Same for taxes, if everybody in the US would only pay a 5% tax rate on their income/profits, the government could not even pay its current defence spending, let alone any cent for social security or Medicaid/Medicare.
Not giving in to demands that you know are only the thin end of a wedge is usually the wiser move.
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You should totally move to some banana republic like Guatemala where nobody pays their taxes. There are no social programs and the poor are wretchedly poor while the rich are phenomenally rich, but that's ideal right?? I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a country like Guatemala? That's why people flee to places like Russia, with it's billionaire oligarchs, and try to escape the oppressive, hellish tax-burdened countries like Germany, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries.
Oh wait, it's not opposite day?
birdsong said:
You should totally move to some banana republic like Guatemala where nobody pays their taxes. There are no social programs and the poor are wretchedly poor while the rich are phenomenally rich, but that's ideal right?? I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a country like Guatemala? That's why people flee to places like Russia, with it's billionaire oligarchs, and try to escape the oppressive, hellish tax-burdened countries like Germany, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries.
Oh wait, it's not opposite day?
Remember when Apple was respectable? When they did The Right Thing instead of what was always best for their profits?
First they lock down their devices, then they re-define App Store policies on a whim to block out competition from Sony and Amazon, and now they're skirting their responsibilities towards the country that gives them the freedom to do what they do.
How long until Apple becomes a Cayman Islands corporation?
First they lock down their devices, then they re-define App Store policies on a whim to block out competition from Sony and Amazon, and now they're skirting their responsibilities towards the country that gives them the freedom to do what they do.
How long until Apple becomes a Cayman Islands corporation?
But the government isn't getting 35% of 37.2 billion. Right now they aren't getting anything because Apple and other companies are keeping the money overseas. The proposed 5% tax is temporary; I don't want the tax rate to always be at that level for corporations. But I accept that the government getting 5% of 37.2 billion NOW (just from Apple) would benefit the government greatly. Similarly, the money being brought back into the United States would also benefit the citizens and the government. Considering our current economic situation, I support initiatives that help to stimulate our economy now.
I'm not sure what you're getting at - nearly half of American households escape income taxes. I just thought I would let you know that, because it doesn't seem as though you do. I'm not saying that everyone in the United States should pay at a 5% tax rate, I simply understand that 5% of the estimated 1 trillion dollars that these companies are lobbying to bring home would benefit our economy better than 0%. Right now companies are sitting on this money, and I'd rather see it brought back this year. Again this is a proposed temporary lowering of the tax. This has not been put into place.
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Don't you mean why should the rich pay more taxes than the poor?
Right now the poor in the US pay a lower% of their money earned to the GOVT.
All apple and these other companies are doing is trying to get the $ that they made on the foreign countries back into the US without being gouged for doing so. Could you imagine the outcry that would happen if the US Govt Taxed someone who made less than 20K at 35% They would torch the whitehouse, yet it's perfectly fine for them to tax the "rich" at 35%?
I don't mean to come off as attacking you but moreso the mentality that people who are good at making money should be punished and people who cant or are not good at making money are rewarded.
Ah but here is the hitch in your plan. What is deemed critical? To a with kids, schools, libraries, parks are critical. To retired people, a senior center, pubic transportation, cheap healthcare is critical.
First of all, tax evading corporations is not what caused the financial crisis. It was initiated by two large banks hiding the fact that many of the people that owed them money were defaulting on their loans. People who should have never been qualified for the loan but couldn't be turned down because they were a first-time-home-buyer who happened to be buying a house which came with a payment that forced them to live paycheck to paycheck. I'm not blaming it all on the banks or all on the home buyers or the government rules. Each player had a hand in the collapse and any one of them could have changed the outcome.
If you want to talk about national debt, more could be done by eliminating entitlement programs than increasing taxes. Over half of the nations budget is spent on such programs.
First, its not going into the pocket of a rich individual but a large corp. Second, its called the trickle-down economics. You give the large corp a break on the money it already has so that it will spend it by buying a smaller company. The employees of the "small" company get paid more because they hold some form of vital knowledge. This is highly applicable in the tech world. The employees that are payed better spend more at stores. Which means they can afford to keep all of their employees. Which means their employees don't go broke. In the end the goal is to improve the economy as a whole.
anyways </rant>
Hotrock3
As long as you happily pay US taxes on that money you won on the cruise ship, on that ring you bought in Cancun and on the drugs your getting from Canada, everything is fine. However, if you're pissed that you pay too much for French wine, Japanese cameras or Swiss chocolate, then you apparently are siding with Apple. ;-)
One of the huge successes of the propaganda machine employed by the US plutocracy is the ability to convince people to support, even advocate, policy that is damaging to them.
Whether it is Apple or Pfizer or whomever, the corporate drive to harvest the fruits of the peoples' labor is insatiable. The only way repatriated profits would help the economy is in terms of increased sales of Ferraris, diamonds, and Louis Vuitton bags (which of course are all imports
well, don't you see the irony here - America has created the environment in which Apple can thrive and make tons of money. They are just asking for a 30% "finder's fee" for the use of their ecosystem which makes all things Apple possible? Why wouldn't Apple just jump at the chance for this? I mean, after all, all those App Store companies are supposed to be jumping at the exact same deal.
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Second, its called the trickle-down economics.
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Lol. I'm afraid you've swallowed a different kind of kool-aid. If you really think "trickle-down economics" works like that in a globalized economy, you're delusional.
Second, its called the trickle-down economics.
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Lol. I'm afraid you've swallowed a different kind of kool-aid. If you really think "trickle-down economics" works like that in a globalized economy, you're delusional.
I agree. This only shows how greedy the corporations are. They care only about profit and their own good. IF they would care, they would pay the tax. The tax goes to the U.S. budget, and from there to the people.
If the money come to U.S. banks, it will help the economy.. maybe, virtually... it would help the banks and the stock market. That's not helping the citizens.
35% does seem steep. While not the highest tax rate I've ever heard of (I think England once had a 95% tax rate, didn't it?), 35% is pretty expensive compared to other tax rates (albeit maybe individual tax rates).
However, I would like to see Apple, and many of the other big companies trying to ask for a tax holiday, to reinvest in themselves and possibly the US. I would love to see Apple invest more in its computer & pro software lines (ie, anything non-iOS based). Everything seems, in my perspective, to be on the back burner compared to iOS.
There was a thread a while back about how when Apple opened its retail store in I think it was Lincoln park, Apple redid the landscaping & the subway station near there. Would be nice to see Apple do more stuff like that.
According to CNN, Apple Cisco, and other companies are trying to get a tax holiday to get about $1 Trillion into the US tax-free or at least low-tax. That means at the current 35% tax rate, the US government would get $350 billion. That's quite a bit.
I'd love to see these companies maybe reinvest in the US infrastructure. In a different thread, someone said that China is really building up its infrastructure & feels that whoever has the best infrastructure will be the dominant force in the 21st century. I can understand that logic. While upgrading the infrastructure would be expensive and time consuming, I'm sure the investment will more than pay off. Maybe not to Apple, Cisco & the other companies, but definitely to the US & world economy, as well as quality of life. As someone said before, if the US government makes a deal for a lower tax rate, but Apple & these other companies reinvest some how, even 5% of $1 trillion is $50 billion, which will go a long way.
However, I would like to see Apple, and many of the other big companies trying to ask for a tax holiday, to reinvest in themselves and possibly the US. I would love to see Apple invest more in its computer & pro software lines (ie, anything non-iOS based). Everything seems, in my perspective, to be on the back burner compared to iOS.
There was a thread a while back about how when Apple opened its retail store in I think it was Lincoln park, Apple redid the landscaping & the subway station near there. Would be nice to see Apple do more stuff like that.
According to CNN, Apple Cisco, and other companies are trying to get a tax holiday to get about $1 Trillion into the US tax-free or at least low-tax. That means at the current 35% tax rate, the US government would get $350 billion. That's quite a bit.
I'd love to see these companies maybe reinvest in the US infrastructure. In a different thread, someone said that China is really building up its infrastructure & feels that whoever has the best infrastructure will be the dominant force in the 21st century. I can understand that logic. While upgrading the infrastructure would be expensive and time consuming, I'm sure the investment will more than pay off. Maybe not to Apple, Cisco & the other companies, but definitely to the US & world economy, as well as quality of life. As someone said before, if the US government makes a deal for a lower tax rate, but Apple & these other companies reinvest some how, even 5% of $1 trillion is $50 billion, which will go a long way.
That sounds pretty selfish and unrealistic. The world is more complex than just paying for roads and "critical services". Who defines critical services in this case? You?
Large corporations get kick backs and benefits as it is. I don't mind watching Apple squirm at a 35% taxation, especially considering how they rip other companies, including those who sell their products in their stores. In fact, the governments world-wide should penalize large corporations who withhold overseas large earnings after an excessive amount of time in an effort to bring that money back to the corporation's country of origin.