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Tim Cook Calls Apple's Tax Avoidance Accusations 'Total Political Crap'
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First, I find it most ridiculous that the USA wants people living outside the USA to pay US taxes on non-US income. The USA are quite unique in that.
Second, you should feel absolutely free to set up a company in the UK. There's a problem with "universities paying your salary to your company"; you would have to set up a deal so the company enters a contract with the university to do work for them and gets paid for the work; the university would not be allowed to give you orders, because you are supposed to be an independent entrepreneur, and they most certainly couldn't pay you a salary. Once you've done that, the company pays you a small salary, puts any amount up to £40,000 a year into a pension fund for you absolutely tax free, pays 20% corporation tax on the rest, and pays you dividends every 3 or 6 months.
Setting up a company in Ireland? That would make life too "interesting" for my taste.
Yes, it is. I would have assumed Apple's PR team could have crafted something a bit better for him to spout out. Although I believe he is an idiot, I don't need to be reminded of it every time he opens his mouth.
Totally incorrect according to the government's own statistics.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/251946-gop-appointee-tax-cuts-do-not-pay-for-themselves
Corporate tax is a big issue. Kinda off topic but that's the reason why so many US businesses are moving to Texas because of the low state taxes. Part of Apple resides in Texas.
We've seen the biggest tech growth down here which is making Texas a very wealthy state vs California which is taxing the crap out of everyone. Toyota is moving here from Cal.
I've noticed a increased population in Dallas in just 4 years. Kinda annoyed by the masses of people but the economy is good.
Housing market is unbelievable!
We've seen the biggest tech growth down here which is making Texas a very wealthy state vs California which is taxing the crap out of everyone. Toyota is moving here from Cal.
I've noticed a increased population in Dallas in just 4 years. Kinda annoyed by the masses of people but the economy is good.
Housing market is unbelievable!
Yes, that's another reason for wealthy folks to setup charities and foundations. It's the legal method to launder their profits and earn goodwill at the same time. Win/win!... although on second thought...
Toyota has specifically said that they're moving because of the high housing costs in California, not because of taxes. In other words, it's the private market that's driving them out, not the government.
There are two points on the inverted bell curve where the tax receivable is the same, and in the centre is the sweet spot of maximum revenue. 40% is not at all high.
I am not a lawmaker! I do not make the law! I want the loopholes closed as much as the next person. Perhaps it's Apple's lobbying that stops them from being closed?
I never said Apple broke the law. Ever. They just don't follow the law plain and simple. They would not be doing anything extra, they would be doing what they should simply be doing. Using loopholes is doing something extra and complex.
And yet I bet you complain about the local facilities, state of the roads and probably don't even think twice about your daily comute to work , and how much of the services and infrastructure is funded by taxes. So care to explain why YOU should pay less than those others that subsidise your life style? Cause you are special ? Why should your next door neighbor pay his share for the same services you use , and you dodge your share.... Cause morally you use it less, knowing you avoided some taxes.....no! It's all about me , me, myself , and I eh?
People who avoid tax and lecture others on morals are the biggest hypocrites.
Go ahead, do it for greed, and to benefit yourself but don't BS how it's morally right !
The universal issue in this debate is selfish people who pretend tax avoidance is thier right cause they are educated and have the resources to exploit it.... And that the whole problem is the government. First world problems!
Call a spade a spade!
I stated earlier, I don't care that apple is using tax avoidance , thier choice to maximize profit, I care about Tim Cook pretending he and apple care about injustice, social issues , sexism , racism etc, and the hypocrite avoids tax that would find government initiatives to support these issues. Just shut up, stop pretending, and focus on shareholder revenue , cause that's what it's all about.
Not bad but a very narrowed view. The issue is far beyond the USA (we are one of many of varying degrees in this schema). Executing the model you are describing would bankrupt this country in a heartbeat.
Not at all. Looks like he hit the definition spot on.
im·mor·al
i(m)ˈmôrəl/
adjective
- not conforming to accepted standards of morality.
"an immoral and unwinnable war"
synonyms: unethical, bad, morally wrong, wrongful, wicked, evil, foul, unprincipled,unscrupulous, dishonorable, dishonest, unconscionable, iniquitous,disreputable, corrupt, depraved, vile, villainous, nefarious, base,miscreant; More
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These and other corporate and personal taxation issues will have to be part of WTO at some point. The current inconsistencies among countries are just too great, inviting all kinds of games.
Good for Tim. Can't blame him for being sick of the clown show in Washington wasting time and doing absolutely nothing to reform our tax codes.
lol @ armchair economists trying to defend Cook or any other high level CEO for this type of nonsense.
This is what they're doing:
They send their money to India, southeast Asia, Israel and France. Most of those countries have no regulations on labor or minimum wage or public health programs or occupational health requirements, so they can pay their international branches to "contract" their manufacturing and assembly requirements.
It's not "Apple" that's manufacturing and producing iPhones in China, it's not even Foxconn. Foxconn is a semiconductor and component manufacturing corporation. They design and produce the tooling components used to assemble iPhone and Mac logic boards, along with manufacturing of the logic boards themselves.
Smaller private companies are the ones that are contracted to do the "**** work", that pays little, offers little benefits or incentives and exploits its workers for 16 hour work shifts.
The tax incentives are just part of the picture, but the preferable scapegoat they need to avert attention from the overall picture and that is that it's much much cheaper to manufacture overseas than it is here.
They're stockpiling money, they don't give a **** about the "American people". At least, not those of the American people that aren't credentialed, technical, educated specialists (engineers, computer scientists, technical writers, marketing managers, etc). They definitely pay top money to keep good technical talent here in the United States, but a lot of that is due to security vulnerability (you can't trust that your overseas employees will keep your trade secrets, 'secret') and also because most of our technical specialists are just better trained.
But blue collar work? It'll be a cold day in Hell before you see any of the big companies putting any of their manual labor on domestic soil. And to be honest, I kind of half don't blame them: Unionized blue collar workers earn more than entry level engineers and are a royal pain in the rear to fire.
You might say, "Oh, well good for them, they're fighting for fair labor rights!"
Yeah... When they succeed. But you can't win a fight when the other side doesn't even show up. And the percentage of Google, Apple, Microsoft or General Electric employees that are unionized is an extremely compelling argument to how much those companies are winning the fight against Unions.
This is what they're doing:
They send their money to India, southeast Asia, Israel and France. Most of those countries have no regulations on labor or minimum wage or public health programs or occupational health requirements, so they can pay their international branches to "contract" their manufacturing and assembly requirements.
It's not "Apple" that's manufacturing and producing iPhones in China, it's not even Foxconn. Foxconn is a semiconductor and component manufacturing corporation. They design and produce the tooling components used to assemble iPhone and Mac logic boards, along with manufacturing of the logic boards themselves.
Smaller private companies are the ones that are contracted to do the "**** work", that pays little, offers little benefits or incentives and exploits its workers for 16 hour work shifts.
The tax incentives are just part of the picture, but the preferable scapegoat they need to avert attention from the overall picture and that is that it's much much cheaper to manufacture overseas than it is here.
They're stockpiling money, they don't give a **** about the "American people". At least, not those of the American people that aren't credentialed, technical, educated specialists (engineers, computer scientists, technical writers, marketing managers, etc). They definitely pay top money to keep good technical talent here in the United States, but a lot of that is due to security vulnerability (you can't trust that your overseas employees will keep your trade secrets, 'secret') and also because most of our technical specialists are just better trained.
But blue collar work? It'll be a cold day in Hell before you see any of the big companies putting any of their manual labor on domestic soil. And to be honest, I kind of half don't blame them: Unionized blue collar workers earn more than entry level engineers and are a royal pain in the rear to fire.
You might say, "Oh, well good for them, they're fighting for fair labor rights!"
Yeah... When they succeed. But you can't win a fight when the other side doesn't even show up. And the percentage of Google, Apple, Microsoft or General Electric employees that are unionized is an extremely compelling argument to how much those companies are winning the fight against Unions.
Or start something to change the tax issue.
Then again, TC is a black dot on a really big white wall.
Anyone have a handy state tax pay guideline that is 1oo% correct?
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And you're not an armchair economist? Lol.
Apple is a business, not a charity. They exist to make money. You can't blame them when they use the system as designed to do that.
This is what I think of as "16GB Tim." This is the Tim Cook who has the gall to look like he's showing off photos of his grandchildren when presenting a lineup of iPhones that start at 16GB in storage despite being designed for taking 4K video. I'm beginning to see what Steve Jobs saw in him, after all.
It's 45% over £150k
What people need to remember is the more companies such as apple, amazon and starbucks etc avoid tax, the more we have to pay in our taxes to make up the shortfall. I'm really hoping the EU digs it teeth deep into apple and stops them avoiding local taxes via loop holes. I've no issues with them not paying US tax on earning in other countries, but they must pay tax on all earning in those local counties at the full weight of tax..
The majority of Americans elected a guy who had an official policy of "sharing the wealth". He was elected twice. My taxes have increased substantially in the past 7 years. My wealth has been increasingly redistributed to others as an official American policy, endorsed by rocket scientists like Tim Cook and all of the rest of the liberal creeps in the Apple universe, who are now suddenly against people feeling "entitled to the labor of others".
Funny how that works.
If all these uber-rich industrialist/investor class/ruling class-type people don;t want to pay taxes... if all these regular working people don;t want to pay taxes.... if the poor don;t want to pay taxes.... if no one wants to pay taxes, why don;t people like Cook just LOBBY TO STOP TAXATION and thus break down government so there will not be such time wasting idiocy in all our lives?
Instead he (and his 1% pals) lobby for more regulation and taxes. Insanity (or mendacity) is their calling card and lingering odor.
Instead he (and his 1% pals) lobby for more regulation and taxes. Insanity (or mendacity) is their calling card and lingering odor.
It's total political cr*p because congress critters could change the laws and take away some of these perfectly legal loopholes (that many use themselves on their own investments and tax returns!).
But they won't, because it would piss off many of their biggest party and reelection campaign donors. So they just lie and encourage some of you robin-hoods to say that Apple is "cheating" to fool you into voting for their reelection. And do nothing about the silly tax laws. That's political cr*p.
But they won't, because it would piss off many of their biggest party and reelection campaign donors. So they just lie and encourage some of you robin-hoods to say that Apple is "cheating" to fool you into voting for their reelection. And do nothing about the silly tax laws. That's political cr*p.
It all comes down to looking for number one. Whenever I hear a socialist government screaming about a large corporations not paying taxes, it is all a political power struggle. Who affects society?
Do you want some old money croneys cashing in on no-bid government contracts and their social engineers with some skewed view of equality calling the shots with mainstream media?
Do you want anyone from any part of society making a great product, gaining market share and displacing old money calling the shots with alternative media?
In the states, we are seeing a huge shift in old money loosing their government monopoly cash flow with Uber and AirBnB tapping right into the cash veins of these cronies. Cable Television use is in decline and no matter what mainstream media says, they are not affecting Presidential candidate survey polls. This is why Democrats are allowing types like Bernie Sanders come to the limelight, they want to institute their old ways in socialism the same way European Royal families and the like socialized most of Europe during the Marshall Plan.
As usual, the Burgermeister Meisterburger goes away when their plans for society are no longer solvent and their tax revenue stream dies off. Sometimes with a whimper, sometimes with their last ammunition box empty.