Apple Offers $100 Million Investment to End Indonesia's iPhone 16 Ban

[boast]

Isn’t this similar with Apple and India?

 

[Karma*Police]

I think it's safe to call it tax dodging / evasion when the on-off largest company in the world has a smaller tax percentage than your average pensioner. Sure, it's not illegal according to the laws they lobbied (=paid) for but it's also not right. Many global issues could be solved quickly if every top company paid their fair share.

Please define “fair share.” Not only can you not define it, but neither can the politicians/media that spread that propaganda.

Furthermore, Apple’s profits belong to the masses that own Apple stock or indirectly own it through funds/ETFs. It wasn’t that long ago when income taxes were illegal. Now, we not only give a huge chunk of our hard earned money to the govt, but pay taxes for groceries, clothes, consumer electronics, investments/401k, fuel, cars, hotels, property, dining out, etc… and yet the govt still can’t balance the budget due to massive corruption and endless bloat.

Drain the swamp and it’ll be obvious to everyone that companies and taxpayers have been paying a lot more than their “fair share”.

 

[jimbobb24]

Edited: Someone already said my comment word for word

 

[jimbobb24]

"Bribe" seems to have been misspelled as "investment"

You beat me to it.

 

[jimbobb24]

Are people not reading. Apple missed an investment threshold, the original 10 million probably more than made up for, but it has decided to basically double the original requirement for investment instead.

If you are wondering what Apple does for the USA. A lot. STEM is their primary one where they invest in technology for schools to help young adults learn coding and other tech skills. It is like some people are living under a rock and can’t remember all the investments they do in the US. Apple maintains like a 1 billion dollar program for US companies.

If all they did was make iPhones that would be enough for the US because iPhones are awesome and they make my life better. Thats enough.

 

[aknabi]

Imagine if every country worked liked this. Prices on everything would skyrocket. This is nothing more than Indonesia shaking down Apple because they can.

And Apple doesn’t dodge taxes. Pay the legally allowed minimum, yes. Work and lobby to make its tax bill as low as possible, also yes. Dodge, no.

Well if this is Indonesian laws then it's not a shakedown... Apple will have to pay whatever the deal is... When apple works and lobbies it's all good... when a country does something for their interest it's a "shakedown"? Got it.

 

[turbineseaplane]

And Apple doesn’t dodge taxes.

Running revenue into an Irish subsidiary (or w/e the heck they're doin') sure feels pretty "dodgy" to me

They've been hoarding cash overseas after doing this, just waiting for the right USA political climate to allow for repatriation of that money

The whole thing .. dodgy as heck

 

[surferfb]

Running revenue into an Irish subsidiary (or w/e the heck they're doin') sure feels pretty "dodgy" to me

They've been hoarding cash overseas after doing this, just waiting for the right USA political climate to allow for repatriation of that money

The whole thing .. dodgy as heck

Holding outside-US revenue in an overseas subsidiary was an extremely common business practice, so much so that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 changed US law to require all US companies doing so to repatriate the money, which Apple promptly did. It wasn't sketchy or dodgy.

Over the past few years, Apple's effective federal tax rate has been between 15-18%, which is not far off from the 21% federal corporate rate. (For those who don't know, the effective rate differs due to deductions, credits, and international taxes). That does not include the various state and local corporate taxes, or any foreign taxes paid (which, to be fair, partially offset Apple's federal tax burden).

If you check your own personal tax return, I bet you'll see your tax bracket and effective rate has a similar, if not greater, percentage difference.

 

[surferfb]

Well if this is Indonesian laws then it's not a shakedown... Apple will have to pay whatever the deal is... When apple works and lobbies it's all good... when a country does something for their interest it's a "shakedown"? Got it.

Saying "you cannot sell your product in our country unless you invest hundreds of millions of dollars you wouldn't otherwise" is absolutely a shakedown and is significantly different than lobbying - which is a company or person working to convince government officials to change laws. The two things are not remotely similar.

 

[brunerd]

And an Apple Store on every island of the Indonesian archipelago!
(this seems like a fine use of AI to me!)

 

[The_Gream]

Isn’t this similar with Apple and India?

Sort of. India requires production %s. So almost any investment goes into manufacturing. Indonesia doesn’t worry about production quotas, but investments. As these investments seem to learn toward education and training.

 

[dampfnudel]

So it’s a bribe…

That’s how it works in some countries and as long as the benefits of paying this greatly outweighs the cost, it’s in Apple’s interest to pay.

 

[frownface]

suddenly every country wants 40% investment