Apple biggest tax dodger

[InRareForm]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22600984

Nothing shocking tbh..

[spursncowboys]

Good.

[leemajors]

title contradicts article title. i would imagine they make a big stink about this, lots of press, and nothing happens like usual.

[boutons_deux]

Tim Cook went before the congressional committee and they endedup sucking his dick (obviously expecting lots of dirty money from Apple)

Apple CEO makes no apology for company's tax strategyApple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made no apology on Tuesday for the iPad (http://www.reuters.com/subjects/ipad) maker saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries and told lawmakers that his company backs corporate tax reform, even though it may end up paying more.

"We expect to pay even more this year," Cook said. "We pay all the taxes we owe."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/us-usa-tax-apple-idUSBRE94J0U320130522?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

what he didn't say is that Apple exploits every gimmick and loophole to the max to avoid paying its fair share, while Apple product assemblers in China commit suicide.

Typical American mega-corp:

fuck American workers,

fuck America,

we're greedy, predatory bastards seeking profit no matter what it costs (to others).

[boutons_deux]

European Leaders Will Debate Corporate Tax Avoidance Their Laws Facilitate (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/22/2048621/european-leaders-will-debate-corporate-tax-avoidance-their-laws-facilitate/)The four-hour summit was originally called to discuss energy policy, but investigations in Britain, France and the United States exposing how little tax major international companies have been paying by carefully structuring their European operations has forced the issue to the top of the agenda.

France and Britain in particular have grown concerned by the sheer scale of the legal tax schemes, with a U.S. investigation revealing on Monday that Apple Inc had paid just 2 percent tax on $74 billion in overseas income, largely by exploiting a loophole in Ireland’s tax code.

That followed reports that the British unit of Amazon paid just $3.7 million tax on 2012 sales of $6.5 billion, and similar revelations concerning the UK operations of Google and Starbucks.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/22/2048621/european-leaders-will-debate-corporate-tax-avoidance-their-laws-facilitate/

[boutons_deux]

Apple Dodges Enough Taxes to Cover Much of the Sequester

The scheme that Apple cooked up this week to finance a $55 billion stock buyback for its shareholders was orchestrated to avoid paying $9.2 billion in taxes, Bloomberg reported Friday (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-02/apple-avoids-9-2-billion-in-taxes-with-debt-deal.html).

That $9.2 billion tax bill that Apple dodged would have been enough to make unnecessary all of the major budget cuts we’ve been writing about this week as part of our “Repeal the Sequester” campaign (http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130503/blog.ourfuture.org/c/repeal-sequester). With $9.2 billion, the federal government could have (based on lists compiled by The Washington Post’s Wonkblog (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/20/the-sequester-absolutely-everything-you-could-possibly-need-to-know-in-one-faq/) and Think Progress (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/26/1927581/12-programs-congress-refuses-to-save-from-automatic-spending-cuts/)):

Paid for rescinding the furloughs of air traffic controllers without raiding $250 million from an airport improvement fund.

Restored Head Start funding to avoid having to kick an estimated 70,000 people out of the program this year.

Kept Meals on Wheels funding for seniors intact.

Restored National Institutes of Health funding, so that research on cancer treatments and other diseases could continue uninterrupted.

Rescinded cuts of up to 10.7 percent in unemployment checks to people who have been looking for work for more than six months without success.

Kept paying for public housing assistance and housing vouchers for people who might otherwise be homeless or in substandard living conditions.

Rescinded cuts in programs for children with special needs and learning disabilities.

Kept already stretched Occupational Safety and Health inspectors on the job, doing the 1,200 workplace inspections that are being shelved by sequestration.

Fully funded disaster relief programs, a particularly critical need now that a wildfire is currently causing serious damage in southern California.

Restored $480 million now cut from the FBI’s operations.

Kept intact the federal programs responsible for safeguarding our nuclear weapons.

Avoided cutting $770 million in various State Department health and economic aid programs, plus another $650 million in funding for diplomatic activities.

Fully funded NASA operations, which would have been a boon to central Florida and to Texas communities already hurting because of the end of the space shuttle program.

Apple was able to do this because of techniques it uses (http://www.policymic.com/articles/7868/apple-icheat-how-the-world-s-biggest-company-also-became-the-most-unethical) to keep its U.S.-made profits offshore, and because of provision in the tax code that allows it to deduct interest it pays on money it borrows.

That’s a double whammy: It does not pay the taxes it should on the money it earns from all of those i-whatevers we buy (including the Macbook Pro I am using to type this post) and it gets money from the government when it borrows money from a big bank rather than using the money from its overseas stockpile

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16177-apple-dodges-enough-taxes-to-cover-much-of-the-sequester

[boutons_deux]

not to start another thread on USA corrupt tax system...

On Tax Day, Five Ways The Tax Code Subsidizes The Wealthiest Americans (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/15/1864281/on-tax-day-five-ways-the-tax-code-subsidizes-the-wealthiest-americans/)



1. Deductions:

The majority of tax breaks come through deductions, and while several deductions have substantial benefits for working class Americans, the advantages for the wealthy are much larger. Because of the way they are structured, popular deductions like those for mortgage interest, retirement savings, and charitable giving provide far bigger benefits for the wealthy (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/tax-reform/report/2013/01/22/50198/next-round-of-deficit-reduction-must-tackle-hidden-spending-in-the-tax-code/) than they do for average Americans, creating an “upside-down” effect that gives the biggest tax breaks to those who need them least and making the tax code look “more progressive than it actually is.” President Obama has proposed capping individual deductions at 28 percent, meaning the wealthy would get the same benefit as taxpayers in the middle class tax bracket. Other proposals, such as converting all deductions to tax credits (http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CAPTaxPlanReportFINAL-b.pdf), would make the tax code even more fair for middle- and lower-class families.

2. Capital gains:

The capital gains preference taxes income from investments at a lower rate than ordinary wage income, providing a huge tax break to investors. Republicans argue that the low capital gains rate boosts the economy, but there is little evidence (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/29/1252751/no-low-capital-gains-taxes-dont-boost-the-economy/) that higher capital gains rates hurt the economy. Instead, the preference increases income inequality, since capital gains income is earned almost solely by the wealthy. Cuts to the capital gains rate since Ronald Reagan equalized it with tax rates on normal income, in fact, are “by far the largest contributor (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/20/1616651/capital-gains-tax-cuts-by-far-the-biggest-contributor-to-growth-in-income-inequality-study-finds/)” to increased income inequality over the last three decades, according to recent studies.

3. Carried interest:

The carried interest loophole, which President Obama closes (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/12/1859951/why-obamas-budget-eliminates-the-carried-interest-tax-loophole/) in his recent budget proposal, benefits wealthy hedge fund managers who take their pay from investors’ profits instead of through management fees, which makes the income subject to the lower capital gains rate than ordinary income rates. The loophole applies to virtually no one, but it allows those who use it — wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives like Mitt Romney — to substantially lower their tax rates. Eliminating it would both make the tax code more equitable and save as much as $21 billion (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/tax-reform/report/2013/01/22/50198/next-round-of-deficit-reduction-must-tackle-hidden-spending-in-the-tax-code/) over 10 years.

4. Estate tax:

The estate tax rose at the beginning of 2013, but the tax deal that helped avert the “fiscal cliff” also locked in huge exemptions for the wealthy. The estate tax now allows individuals to exempt up to $5.25 million from taxation, meaning heirs to a couple’s estate can inherit $10.5 million without paying taxes. The estate tax now applies to only the wealthiest 0.14 percent (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/tax-reform/report/2013/01/22/50198/next-round-of-deficit-reduction-must-tackle-hidden-spending-in-the-tax-code/) of Americans, and from the income that is passed down each year (almost entirely from wealthy families), it raises less than 1 percent of revenue.

5. Deductions for vacation homes:

The mortgage interest tax deduction, aimed at promoting home ownership, allows homeowners to deduct interest paid on their second home as well. That obviously benefits the wealthy, since they are more likely to have second homes, but it gets worse: the deduction can also apply to large yachts (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/tax-reform/report/2013/01/22/50198/next-round-of-deficit-reduction-must-tackle-hidden-spending-in-the-tax-code/) that have sleeping spaces, giving a tax break to wealthy boat owners. This loophole alone costs the U.S. an estimated $10 billion each decade.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/15/1864281/on-tax-day-five-ways-the-tax-code-subsidizes-the-wealthiest-americans/

So the super rich with 5+ homes like McLiar (wife) and Bishop Gecko can deduct mortgage interest on 4+ homes, a tax expenditure by tax payers and a taxpayer-subsidized gift to the banks/lenders, just like all mortgage interest deductions ( I wonder who pushed hard for the mortgage interest deduction? the banks? behind the smoke screen of encouraging home ownership? )

[boutons_deux]

Income Taxes Do Not Fully Reflect the Low Taxation on the Rich in the US

"Only Little People Pay Taxes: Why a janitor ends up with a higher tax rate than a millionaire" is an article (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/taxes-richest-americans-charts-graph)in Mother Jones Magazine that dispels a key myth about the rich and taxes:

The superrich don't pay as much as they used to—and thanks to a combination of tax cuts and preferential tax policies, their tax obligations can be less demanding than the so-called little people's. In fact, the very wealthiest Americans' tax burden has been steadily dropping for years, even as they've enjoyed astounding income growth not seen by the vast majority of Americans.

Tax rates for the wealthy have fallen substantially since they peaked in the 1940s. During the past 30 years, they have been cut at a much faster rate than middle- and low-income taxpayers'.

Remember that much of the money "earned" by the super rich is paid under along-term capital gains tax, which is considerably less than any high income tax bracket. That's what made Mitt Romney's tax rate so low, along with offshore bank accounts and other tax evasion schemes that can be perfectly legal, as David Cay Johnston wrote about in a book of the same name: "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else." (http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9781591840695-12%20)


And then you have regressive flat taxes such as sales taxes and Social Security (the latter of which is not even taxed above $113,7000 in income). (http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17914-white-house-and-senate-democrats-should-eliminate-social-security-tax-cap-for-the-rich-stop-cpi-spam-food-scam-on-elderly)
(http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17914-white-house-and-senate-democrats-should-eliminate-social-security-tax-cap-for-the-rich-stop-cpi-spam-food-scam-on-elderly)

In short, income tax is not reflective of the total percentage of taxation on the ultra rich as compared to the working class, due to flat taxes, tax breaks, and legal tax evasion (not to mention illegal tax evasion).

As far as corporations – and remember corporate profit affects salaries, bonuses, stock value and dividends, the Mother Jones article notes:

Corporations exploit various loopholes and tax breaks to reduce their IRS bills—perhaps none more notoriously than General Electric. Though the corporate tax rate is 35%, GE has paid nothing near that for nearly a decade.

As columnist Mark Shields wrote on February 12, 2001, reflecting on the Clinton 1993 income tax increases on the wealthy as compared to the Bush tax cuts:

According to an analysis of IRS data done by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in 1992 "the average after-tax income of the 1 percent of tax filers with the highest income" was $398,000. By 1997…the top 1 percent of tax filers has an average after-tax income of $518,000. That amounts to an average income increase for the richest 1 percent of 30.1 percent.

In short, one can argue that the tax increases on the rich were at least one part of a booming economy that benefited the rich quite well under the two Clinton administrations.

The Mother Jones article concludes:

Leona Helmsley's distaste for paying taxes eventually landed her in federal prison. But the rich have little need to break the law to avoid the tax collector. As Martin A. Sullivan of Tax.com recently calculated, a New York janitor making slightly more than $33,000 a year pays an effective tax rate of nearly 25%. And the effective tax rate for a resident of the Park Avenue building named after Helmsley, earning an average of $1.2 million annually? A cool 14.7%.

So the janitor pays 25% of in taxes but the 1 percenters pay under 15%.

When it comes to taxation looked at as a whole, the middle class gets hit upside the head, while the wealthy get away with paying a cheap tip.


http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17920-income-taxes-do-not-fully-reflect-the-low-taxation-on-the-rich-in-the-us

[boutons_deux]

A Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent

By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/joseph-e-stiglitz/)


as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, that taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. But in recent decades, the burden for paying that price has been distributed in increasingly unfair ways.

About 6 in 10 of us believe that the tax system is unfair (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/27/yes-the-rich-are-different/) — and they’re right: put simply, the very rich don’t pay their fair share. The richest 400 individual taxpayers, with an average income of more than $200 million, pay less than 20 percent (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09intop400.pdf) of their income in taxes — far lower than mere millionaires, who pay about 25 percent (http://www.irs.gov/PUP/taxstats/productsandpubs/12infallbulincome.pdf) of their income in taxes, and about the same as those earning a mere $200,000 to $500,000. And in 2009, 116 of the top 400 earners — almost a third — paid less than 15 percent of their income in taxes.

Conservatives like to point out that the richest Americans’ tax payments make up a large portion of total receipts. This is true, as well it should be in any tax system that is progressive — that is, a system that taxes the affluent at higher rates than those of modest means. It’s also true that as the wealthiest Americans’ incomes have skyrocketed in recent years, their total tax payments have grown. This would be so even if we had a single flat income-tax rate across the board.

What should shock and outrage us is that as the top 1 percent has grown extremely rich, the effective tax rates they pay have markedly decreased. Our tax system is much less progressive than it was for much of the 20th century. The top marginal income tax rate peaked at 94 percent during World War II and remained at 70 percent through the 1960s and 1970s; it is now 39.6 percent. Tax fairness has gotten much worse in the 30 years since the Reagan “revolution” of the 1980s.

Citizens for Tax Justice, an organization that advocates for a more progressive tax system, has estimated that, when federal, state and local taxes are taken into account, the top 1 percent paid only slightly more than 20 percent (http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2011.pdf) of all American taxes in 2010 — about the same as the share of income they took home, an outcome that is not progressive at all.


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/a-tax-system-stacked-against-the-99-percent/?ref=opinion

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

The problem with the estate tax isn't the $5.2 million exemption itself, it's how much people can reduce the tax value of their estate with ease such that it's a small fraction of what the estate is actually worth. If you have an estate worth $100 million any estate planner who has a clue what he's doing can get that entire estate under the $5.2 million exemption through loopholes.

[boutons_deux]

It’s Not Just One Bad ‘Apple’

Earlier this week, a Senate panel investigated how Apple avoided billions in taxes through a web of offshore subsidiaries “so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxes-congressional-panel-says.html?pagewanted=1&ref=applecomputerinc).” Although the company may have achieved, in the words of Sen. Carl Levin, the “holy grail of tax avoidance,” senators didn’t accuse Apple of doing anything illegal and it is by no means alone in its use of loopholes and gimmicks to avoid paying taxes.
Here’s a list, topped by Apple, of 10 companies that increased their offshore holdings in the past year

http://cdn.billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/offshore2013.jpg

The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent — one of the highest in the world (http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eglg45fddgi/hey-mister-tax-man-4/) — but as The New York Times reported yesterday, the effective corporate tax rate (what companies actually pay) “fell to 17.8 percent in 2012 (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/the-corporate-tax-dodge/) from 42.5 percent in 1960,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Another chart from the Citizens for Tax Justice (http://ctj.org/) shows 10 companies that managed to do much better than average, paying little or no taxes for the past five years. Dollar amounts are numbers in millions and “rate” is the effective tax rate that the companies paid.

http://cdn.billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/little-or-no-taxes.gif

http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/24/its-not-just-one-bad-apple/

[angrydude]

literally every big company in the world does this.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

literally every big company in the world does this.

Sure and it gives a tremendous advantage to large conglomerates. It's a different story for the 12 man shop. All animals are created equal.