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Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

reuters.com

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Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#131

Post by ixtli »

lbrdn wrote: post #126

Of course lowering taxes would encourage companies to repatriate large overseas cash hoards, but if that's the only goal, why have a tax at all? As a country the US has obligations to its current citizens and its future citizens and those obligations cost money. If we overly celebrate these windfalls every time the tax rate is lowered, we might not realize that what we owe the citizen is being forgot and allowed to e…

This is exactly the thing that renders me speechless every time this comes up in casual conversation. People generally agree that apple and other tech companies hoarding money in Ireland to avoid tax is Bad™. Then, in the next breath, they say that removing the tax burden to get them to move that money back into a US bank is somehow Good™. But what does it matter if the government can't take a cut? Why do people who don't profit off of apple care which bank it's in?

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#132

Post by tootie »

mudil wrote: post #4

"Apple Plans to Pay $38 Billion in Repatriation Taxes. " Imagine headline like this under Obama, how much praise he would get.

It's a great headline. The tax bill be a net loss of $1T for government coffers over 10 years though so it's grossly misleading.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#133

Post by seanmcdirmid »

eridius wrote: post #53
downandout wrote: post #36

I find it fascinating that a tax plan proposed by a President reviled throughout the Valley is the one thing that finally convinced Apple to repatriate much of its overseas cash and invest it here in the US. They of course give no credit to him in this press release, but the proof is in the pudding. Of the many heavy handed ideas and efforts made by the previous administration to convince Apple to do this, exactly 0…

Once corporations have exhausted their large hoard of overseas cash, the amount they repatriate will go down significantly. So isn't this really just a short-term boost?

The USA has moved to a territorial tax system for corporations, so any income earned abroad will no longer be subject to US tax (only taxed by the country where the income was generated), and so can be freely moved back to the USA if the companies wish. There is no longer a distinction to be made concerning where money can be spent without being US taxed.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#134

Post by dschuler »

downandout wrote: post #84
IBM wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody had to convince Apple or any other company to do anything. The repatriation is deemed, i.e no company has a choice in it. And while you may believe it was "proposed" by Trump, it has actually been in the works for years by both parties in Congress and by Obama [1]. They could just never pass a bill (because what else did you expect with Obama in the WH and Republicans in control of Congress) because Democrats…

>The repatriation is deemed, i.e no company has a choice in it. Incorrect. There is a repatriation tax holiday that enables them to pay lower rates than normal on repatriated cash. It is designed to encourage repatriation. They are not required to do so.

The repatriation tax holiday actually encourages corporations to hoard profits overseas until the next "one time" tax break. There was a repatriation tax holiday in 2004 also.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#135

Post by res0nat0r »

pg314 wrote: post #77
Clanan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1,000 is not laughable to most people.

If you're talking about Walmart, they announced a one-time bonus of up to $1,000. Walmart estimates that it will cost about $400 million [1], and they employ 2.3 million people [2], so the average bonus is under $200. Meanwhile Walmart will save about $1.8 billion a year in taxes, every year, thanks to the tax cut. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/wal-mart-... [2] https://www.google.be/search?q=…

Also is that $1,000 if you're a 20 year employee? So for 20 years of service you get a $50 gift card worth of bonus once a year? No thanks, I'll take a permanent living wage increase instead.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#136

Post by untog »

nodesocket wrote: post #42

All the comments seem to be sketpical or negative. I think it's funny if you go back right before tax reform passed and look at all the comments on articles here on HN almost all were blasting tax reform. Saying it won't work, it does not help the economy, does not create jobs, and repatriation only leads to stock buybacks and executive bonuses. So far we've seen company after company giving substantial bonuses to al…

You're conflating a few different things here.

The main objection to tax reform was that incredibly rich individuals are going to pay a lot less tax, and the middle classes will (once the temporary cuts expire) end up paying more. All of these complaints about the individual tax rates have very little to do with the impact of these corporate tax changes.

And let's face it: it's far too early to say that these tax changes have been either a success or a failure. The way the reforms were passed - another source of legitimate complaint - sidestepped all the usual assessments and calculations in order to pass something, anything as quickly as possible. So we're flying in the dark here. Yes, these short term bonuses are a positive sign. But who knows what the impact of lower tax revenue will be on other services (e.g.) Walmart employees depend on. Will they still be happy with a $200 bonus if they find out their Medicare coverage gets cut?

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#137

Post by ceejayoz »

acali wrote: post #70
southphillyman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair the bonuses I've heard about have been laughable so far and accompanied by large lay offs in two cases (Walmart and Comcast).

What about Walmart also increasing their hourly pay? [0] [0] - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/11/walmart-to-boost-starting-wa...

That probably has more to do with low unemployment.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#138

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rdtsc wrote: post #56
southphillyman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair the bonuses I've heard about have been laughable so far and accompanied by large lay offs in two cases (Walmart and Comcast).

> I've heard about have been laughable so far Having been poor, then living on $750/month in US for many years, a $1000 bonus is not life changing but also not laughable. The companies certainly didn't have to give those and could have pocketed all of it. > large lay offs in two cases (Walmart and Comcast). Are those because of the tax incentives?

You only get the full $1000 if you worked for Walmart full time for 20 years. It’s not like you would still get much if you were a typical Walmart employee.

Re: Apple plans new U.S. campus, to pay $38B in foreign cash taxes

#140

Post by saagarjha »

module0000 wrote: post #71
akvadrako wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is a significant percentage of the economy all by itself.

What do you think a "significant percentage" is? Is it 10%? 1%? 0.005%?

I wouldn't call it a "significant percentage", but by a straightforward calculation of revenue/GDP shows that it's about 1% of the US's economy.
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