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Apple's incoming chief lawyer Katherine Adams has received a generous bonus package in the form of restricted stock units, or RSUs, according to a mandatory disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week.

katherine-adams-apple-800x420.jpg
Katherine Adams

The first part of the award consists of 57,482 RSUs that vest in quarterly instalments on the 13th day of May 2018, November 2018, November 2019, and November 2020, so long as Adams remains employed by Apple on those dates.

The second part of the award consists of up to 57,482 RSUs, a percentage of which will vest on October 1, 2020 based on Apple's relative total shareholder return between November 13, 2017 and September 26, 2020.

Based on Apple's performance compared to companies in the S&P 500 over the next three years, Adams can see the second part of her award increased by as much as 100 percent, or decreased to zero if Apple were to underperform.

Based on Apple's closing price of $169.08 on Wednesday, each portion of 57,482 RSUs is worth slightly over $9.7 million for a potential total value of $19.4 million. The amount could be higher or lower based on Apple's performance.

Apple frequently awards its senior executives with restricted stock units as an incentive for them to stay with the company.

Adams will succeed the retiring Bruce Sewell as Apple's General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal and Global Security at the end of the year. She was previously general counsel at Honeywell.

Apple's general counsel oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, global security, and privacy.

Article Link: Apple's New Chief Lawyer Katherine Adams Welcomed With Multimillion-Dollar Bonus Package of Restricted Stock
 

78Bandit

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2009
688
1,252
"Apple's general counsel oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, global security, and privacy."

They left out the most important item, structuring tax shelters to ensure Apple only pays taxes in island nations with favorable rates. That alone is worth multiple billions per year to Apple.
 

DaveOP

macrumors 68000
May 29, 2011
1,574
2,324
Portland, OR
"Apple's general counsel oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, global security, and privacy."

They left out the most important item, structuring tax shelters to ensure Apple only pays taxes in island nations with favorable rates. That alone is worth multiple billions per year to Apple.
Can you provide evidence and references that Apple has not paid taxes that were actually owed the US government?
 
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Kaibelf

Suspended
Apr 29, 2009
2,445
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Silicon Valley, CA
"Apple's general counsel oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, global security, and privacy."

They left out the most important item, structuring tax shelters to ensure Apple only pays taxes in island nations with favorable rates. That alone is worth multiple billions per year to Apple.

I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."
 

Carnegie

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2012
833
1,982
So this more or less the same as the annual compensation package that the other SVPs got, rather than a signing package which might have been in addition to such annual compensation packages.

The structure is a bit different than what the others got. For instance, the time-based RSUs vest over 3 years rather than over 2-1/2 years. And the beginning date for the total shareholder return calculation, for the performance-based RSUs, is different - though the end date and vesting date is the same. The number of shares is also different, though their grant date value is the same. Ms. Adams is getting considerably fewer shares because the closing price of AAPL was much higher this past Monday than it was in October when the other SVPs' awards were granted.
 

Quasi26

macrumors member
Mar 3, 2009
35
55
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."

This is a bit disingenuous. I don't think anyone believes they are not paying what is required to be paid. But I think it is clear that those with more money, including corporations, are able to find fully legal loopholes to funnel money to nations where tax laws are better. Internal company "payments" to a tiny subsidiary in Ireland makes a massive US operation tax neutral while all the "profit" is absorbed in countries where they dont have to pay as much even if the work is done here. Even Tim Cook admitted that they would repatriate money to the US if they didnt have to pay 40% tax on it like everyone else.
 
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Jetfire

macrumors 6502
Jul 10, 2008
386
347
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."
Actually, what people don't understand is that Public trade companies are required by law to look out for investors money.
I'm sick of people but especially politicians bring this up. Apple is doing nothing wrong legally. If you don't like it then fix the laws that let this happen.
 

Sunrisesammy

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2015
150
93
Actually, what people don't understand is that Public trade companies are required by law to look out for investors money.
I'm sick of people but especially politicians bring this up. Apple is doing nothing wrong legally. If you don't like it then fix the laws that let this happen.
Atty here. You are confusing tax avoidance with evasion. Other guy isn’t saying they are breaking the law, but instead not acting in the spirit of the law.
 
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trusso

macrumors 6502a
Oct 4, 2003
746
2,200
I am sure she is very valuable to the company. Just as Tim Cook is valuable to the company. And they both work very hard at what they do, I have no doubt. It's important to remember, however, that in this world, so much comes down to luck. That is the sad but honest truth – reason for the rest of us to be content with what we have, and reason for those of worldly renown to remain ever humble.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others. But for the Civil War, Lincoln and Grant and Sherman and Sheridan would not have been discovered, nor have risen into notice. I have touched upon this matter in a small book which I wrote a generation ago and which I have not published as yet — Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. When Stormfield arrived in heaven, he was told that … a shoemaker … was the most prodigious military genius the planet had ever produced.
-Mark Twain​
 

CarpalMac

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2012
1,617
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UK
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."

That rebuttal is irrelevant, it isn't remotely comparable to the point originally being made. To be relevant, it needs to ask when was the last time that person didn't actively go out to research tax havens for their business and then do the necessary to register a company in said location (or whatever is needed) in order to then store their money there and avoid higher tax rates elsewhere.

Offering to pay more for a product is not the same thing and certainly not a rebuttal.

Of course, another reason why no one has replied might be because anyone who reads this forum regularly knows you are one of the most loyal and vocal defenders of Apple here, so are sure to find a way to criticise, discredit, find fault or simply deflect any such response - so they simply don't bother. Just like I probably shouldn't have.
 
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laz232

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2016
732
1,383
At a café near you
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."

As a small business owner i find that such a specious ***** response.

Apple is rich enough to both lobby for lower taxes and make use of loopholes that are not available to ordinary citizens / businesses whilst still profiting from the benefits that the state provides.

Saying “but it’s legal so all is fine” is just another symptom of late stage capitalism...
 

78Bandit

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2009
688
1,252
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."

I pay more than I am legally required to every single year. Of course it is because I don't make enough money to justify paying tax attorneys tens of thousands of dollars to get me into the tax shelter system. My income tax bill to the U.S. government last year was approximately $25,000. I could conceivably cut it substantially by setting up a personal services corporation based out of the Cayman Islands, funneling my payments through international banks, and repatriating only what I need for current living expenses; but it would cost me way more than I would save. It is a cost-benefit analysis and only those with massive incomes can afford to work the system to its full potential.

I never said what Apple was doing was completely illegal, but based on what I've read it does appear Apple is taking advantage of tax schemes set up by other governments that are in conflict with international laws. They may be paying what Ireland says they owe, but Ireland wasn't assessing them the full amount they should have been. That is what I was pointing out with Ms. Adams' position, a massive benefit to Apple's shareholders is her ability to navigate through the tax system and shift profits from where they are actually earned to where they can be taxed at a lower rate to avoid (not necessarily evade) taxes that would normally be assessed on operations in a particular country were it not for tax shelters not feasible for most corporations.
 

laz232

macrumors 6502a
Feb 4, 2016
732
1,383
At a café near you
Actually, what people don't understand is that Public trade companies are required by law to look out for investors money.
I'm sick of people but especially politicians bring this up. Apple is doing nothing wrong legally. If you don't like it then fix the laws that let this happen.


Look out for investors money is not the same as profit-Uber-alles

“If you don't like it then fix the laws that let this happen”
Yeah right - notice that income disparity *increased* under “hope and change” (Obama) and will no doubt continue under “drain the swamp” (Trump).

I’m on the lucky side of the income bell curve, but I remember that my work designing stuff for satellites should not be valued 1000x that of the work that the cleaning staff or the waiting staff perform - after all there are only 24 hours in a day.
 

manni

macrumors regular
Mar 17, 2010
145
490
I never get comments like this, as 100% of the time the person making it always fails to respond to the follow-up rebuttal:

"Please describe the last time you paid a single penny more on your taxes than you were required to pay legally." I have yet, after all this time, to find a single person who has said "I paid X more for the good of the US and its debt load."

I'm afraid that is a silly comment.

I'm believer in capitalism and small government, I don't want massive taxes etc. But the current situation we have is one where ordinary people simply have no way of avoiding tax while big companies and the super rich can and do all the time. To pretend this isn't so is just plain ignorant. And it is angering millions of people.

Apple is quite open about it. They have for example tried to get the Indian government to give them tax breaks in India - and that's a country in desperate need of infrastructure from the government etc. You won't find Tim Cook virtue signalling about poor Indians who don't have clean water to drink that those taxes might have put right while he and the rest of the board pocket tens of millions in bonuses.

So to answer your comment the rebuttal is very simple - ordinary people have no choice and have to pay every penny of tax and, you perhaps aren't aware, frequently do indeed accidentally pay too much, either through mistakes or not knowing some obvious loophole. Multinational corporations, including Apple, have a record of ruthlessly avoiding tax through all manner of means. They do this to the tune of billions, yes billions, of dollars per year. Does this end up making the average Apple worker better off? No. Due to increasing automation and, in the case of western countries, immigration from the third world, low end jobs are not seeing real terms increases in wages. However, no robot will take Cook's job and he is part of an elite which votes their own wages so his class see huge returns. It feels unfair and is unfair.

We all depend on society to work together and for everyone to accept the systems of taxes and honestly paying for things etc. Without that, capitalism falls apart. And in return capitalism provides incredible wealth and inventiveness but it's only fair that those who profit from this, especially to the obscene level that Apple's top execs do, have to pay back to keep the system going.

As it happens I don't blame the individuals in question that much. It's nauseating when the likes of Cook virtue signal on twitter of course but it's true most people would behave with similar greed if in that position. The governments simply shouldn't allow it.
[doublepost=1510864355][/doublepost]
I am sure she is very valuable to the company. Just as Tim Cook is valuable to the company. And they both work very hard at what they do, I have no doubt. It's important to remember, however, that in this world, so much comes down to luck. That is the sad but honest truth – reason for the rest of us to be content with what we have, and reason for those of worldly renown to remain ever humble.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others. But for the Civil War, Lincoln and Grant and Sherman and Sheridan would not have been discovered, nor have risen into notice. I have touched upon this matter in a small book which I wrote a generation ago and which I have not published as yet — Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. When Stormfield arrived in heaven, he was told that … a shoemaker … was the most prodigious military genius the planet had ever produced.
-Mark Twain​

That is indeed the depressing dirty secret of economics. It would be so nice to believe it isn't true but alas it is.

I think society to society you can make the comparison. There are valid reasons, and maybe some invalid, as to why for example the USA is wealthier than Zimbabwe on the basis of things like the rule of law and contract law etc.

But within any given society, having had a fair bit of experience of knowing some top execs, men one rung down from Cook in terms of wealth, but still in the top 2% they work hard but not really any harder than say a high ranked nurse or farmer or mid level engineer. I am quite happy for someone like Cook who is after all an employee, to earn a high wage but the amounts these days are just ludicrous.
 
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