Corporations don't pay taxes.... At least that's what I'm told in the US all the time. They scam their way out of taxes as much as they can (something ordinary people can't do, but the rich are really good at) and then they just raise prices so that consumers basically pay the rest.
Just how much do we pay? We pay it out of
our income taxes and yet again out of sales taxes. Then we have property taxes (which mean you never
really own your land as the moment you can't afford to pay the property tax which can shoot up overnight, you lose it). Have enough money and they'll tax gifts and inheritance yet AGAIN with the gift/estate tax (basically the grubby governments wants to take your money any way they can. They do almost NOTHING for you (can't even keep the roads in good repair) and then effectively take about ONE HALF your income. You don't make $60,000 a year. You make less than $30,000 when all is said and done and sale taxes aren't figured into quoted prices so you still have the balance to pay. Now toss in the cost of health care and the corporate THIEVES working that racket plus insurance costs that pay you nothing and raise your rates just for the hell of it (a speeding ticket finally came off my car insurance, for example and my rate didn't drop $50 a half like it should have; they just raised some others bits so it effectively stayed the same anyway because it's all a LIE. Heaven forbid you ever made an actual claim. They'd still jack your rates up even if you had that "accident forgiveness" clause; they'd just hide it somewhere else).
Small wonder people HATE the government that only listens to lobbied interests (as they pay for their campaigns to stay in power), then when on top of unbelievably wasted spending (let's start another pointless war and give no bid contracts to Haliburton so DICK Cheney's stock can go up some more while our infrastructure crumbles and Congress sits there and does NOTHING all year long and then goes on unbelievably long "breaks" and votes themselves another pay raise while they're at it). And to think that we rebelled against Britain because of a tax on tea? Holy freaking HELL Batman! What the "replacement" government does to us today by comparison would make that tea look like it was free by comparison! It's funny because I didn't see any roads anywhere near as bad as in the US when I was in Britain this year. Prices had taxes already figured in so it was no surprise at the cash register in a given town (some towns in the US have >10% taxes). (take a look at what Europeans really pay compared to the "myths" we have:
http://jacksonville.com/interact/bl...care_what_do_people_really_pay_in_europe_f_0#)
So the only real difference between the US and UK is that the US lets our infrastructure rot and spends all that money attacking foreign countries instead and lets the debt pile up. Even with Obamacare (as screwed up as it is), we still don't come close to covering 100% of people like the UK does. Prescriptions are through the roof here. Property taxes are through the roof. And yet we still have this national debt that threatens to destroy the country and "Free Trade" with China with huge imbalances is OK. We don't want a trade war...we just want REAL wars....
I think Apple is probably guilty of everything they say they are because the European Union, as imperfect as it is still sticks up for the consumer while our government has sold us out to the corporate interests completely. Screw Apple. They won't bring money back to the US because they don't want to pay the taxes on it! I have to pay MY taxes whether I like it or not! Why the hell should Apple get the protections of the US without paying their taxes? They use every lobbied loop hole to avoid it (and trying to strike deals with farming countries like Ireland that badly want industrialization are just another method of avoiding them). Of course they're guilty of avoiding taxes. Whether it's "legal" or not is neither here nor there in my mind. The point is that an "honest" person doesn't pay lawyers to find wiggle ways out of paying taxes and shore up money in the Bahamas, but that's what MOST RICH PEOPLE DO and even they are starting to get taken to task for it, but not corporations. They pay nothing (
http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/Fortune-tax-corporate-GE/2015/04/14/id/638367/).
There should be FLAT taxes and NO loop holes. Apple makes ungodly amounts of money by using "sweatshop type" labor in China and then selling the goods back here. Now they want a free trade agreement with Asia so they can avoid any taxes on bringing those goods back. It's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous that politicians pretend those trade agreements are GOOD for our countries. The concept of FAIR TRADE is utterly beyond them and that's because the people that own stock in the corporations make out like bandits with these agreements while the people in the middle and bottom get screwed by them.
So do I feel sorry for poor richer-than-god Apple? Of course not. Listening to Tim Cook whine about it as if he were paying it out of his own pocket (gee his bonuses might be slightly less so no wonder he's so bitter!) just makes me want to puke. Watching Apple avoid US labor and then push for free trade with China....(excuse me while I hurl).
Apple didn't make $200B profit in 2014 in Europe.
