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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

#531

Post by IncRnd »

toyg wrote: post #481
IncRnd wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Have you investigated how many countries on the planet tax their citizens and corporations making money in other countries? The US marginal corporate tax rate is 38.92% compared to the worldwide average 22.5%. Until this recent tax bill passed, the US has had the 3rd highest marginal corporate tax rate in the world, surpassed only by the UAE and Puerto Rico. The US federal government is greedy for cash not bu…

A higher theoretical corporate rate is largely offset by lower income tax [1]. In the end, income taxes are basically a business cost for any company with employees. On top of that, actual tax rates after accounting for deductions are much lower [2], and then you have lower sales tax: in Europe VAT averages around 20%, whereas in the US sales tax averages well below 10% - which is why European tourists are notorious…

I try to tell myself that each quarter...

From the standpoint of a business owner, you almost always need to spend the money in the first place in order to get deductions.

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

#532

Post by jdc »

chii wrote: post #396
rizzom5000 wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is. If the > workers DOING THE ACTUAL WORK are able to provide more value than the corporation, then why are they working for the corporation instead of providing more value than the corporation by themselves; and paying themselves more than the corporation pays them? I think OP's argument could be an example of reductio ad absurdum.

The balance of power remains at the management level of a corporation, despite the fact that management hardly "does the work" that workers hired would be doing. The same arguments applied to the peasantry of the feudal age. There are many more peasants than lords, but through an imbalance of power (military in the feudal age, and monetary in the modern age), the higher ups gets to claim the profits of the workers.

It seems to me that management is good at crafting the appearance that they hold power even in cases where they don't.

See also: VUCA

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

#533

Post by dguaraglia »

mabdre wrote: post #519
dguaraglia wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1.5 trillion - $29bn... yeah, still not seeing the "positive effect" in the long term.

150 - 2.9 is definitely a step forward...

Except that it took 1 bill to create the 1.5 trillion in debt and decades to create the 29bn in profits. This kind of "big windfall" is only happening this tax cycle, and won't happen ever again.

It's almost like people really focus on whatever positive input they get and cling to it no matter what.

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

#534

Post by jjeaff »

bnferguson wrote: post #456
jjeaff wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are living abroad, you only have to pay tax on your income in excess of ~$110k

But you still have to file, which is not only a pain, rather expensive. My tax prep bill last year was around 1200 EUR in the Netherlands on top of my Dutch tax prep.

That is extremely overpriced. It is more labor intensive for working abroad, but not by that much. But if you were paying someone in the Netherlands to do your US tax return, that might explain it. Next year, get a US tax preparer and I can't imagine it being more than $200-$300.

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

#535

Post by danjayh »

pg314 wrote: post #486
danjayh wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also you seem to be under the incorrect assumption that capital will just sit in a warehouse as bricks of $100 bills collecting dust. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, one of a few things will happen: 1) Apple will spend it on capital investments (factories, campuses, data centers, etc.) in its business. Doesn't benefit the government, but benefits the country. 2) Apple will spend it on R&D / emplo…

You seem to be under the incorrect assumption that it is currently sitting in a foreign warehouse as bricks of $100 bills collecting dust. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to page 49 of Apple's yearly report [1] at the end of 2016 its cash and equivalents were invested as follows (amounts in millions): * U.S. Treasury securities 41,697 * U.S. agency securities 7,543 * Non-U.S. government securities…

I know this post is a few days old, but having that cash invested in treasuries, bonds, CDs, etc. is as close to a warehouse as it can possibly get. I strongly suspect that a good chunk of it will be spent on capital investments once it's repatriated.

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

#536

Post by danjayh »

curun1r wrote: post #495
danjayh wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself. I'm not at the high end of the income curve - not in the 1%, not even in the 10%, and I'm getting almost a $4k tax cut next year. I ran the numbers for my friends who are probably in the bottom half of the income curve (they make just over 40k between the two of them), and they're getting about a $1200 reduction. They were pretty shocked, since they'd been told over and over that it's not really a…

The part you're not taking into consideration is that all of this will be paid for with cuts to Social Security and Medicare for people not already receiving benefits. So if you're still in your wage-earning years, that $4k tax cut (which others have rightly pointed out only lasts 10 years) will cost you tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars a year in retirement. It's extremely short-sighted to look at just…

I already plan not to receive Social Security or Medicare. If I do, I will have far more money in my retirement years than in my working years - we save at a pretty crippling rate of ~20% into Roths right now. But since I'm 35 and my wife is 30, it's likely that we'll get nothing (or very little).

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

#537

Post by danjayh »

talmand wrote: post #498
curun1r wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part you're not taking into consideration is that all of this will be paid for with cuts to Social Security and Medicare for people not already receiving benefits. So if you're still in your wage-earning years, that $4k tax cut (which others have rightly pointed out only lasts 10 years) will cost you tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars a year in retirement. It's extremely short-sighted to look at just…

I'm curious why I've never heard a politician go with the argument that a tax cut today will ruin your social security benefits tomorrow. Why do they not make the argument that a tax increase would be more beneficial for your future?

I don't trust the government to do much of anything, and that includes invest money. Their stewardship of the social security trust fund has proven that I'm right (it's essentially full of IOU's). Anybody who believes that giving the government a few thousand dollars is better for their retirement than putting the same cash in a 401k hasn't taken a hard look at the government's performance to date.

TL;DL: I don't think that argument would fly with informed voters.

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