How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
nytimes.com
How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
1–10 of 215 posts
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#2Apple isn't the only one. Microsoft has an office in Reno for exactly this purpose ( they deal with all licensing).
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#3They do this by following the tax laws; laws which we as a society have created in order to induce businesses to behave in certain ways.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#4No matter the tax rate or how diligently one tries to fix loopholes, in a global world big corporations are going to dodge taxes (not always a bad thing). It's just that this is much harder for small companies who don't have armies of lawyers at their disposal, so it essentially creates an unfair advantage for bigger corporations (leverage) over startups and skews the economy towards the BigCo. This is why big corporations are often fine with regulations, higher taxes and raised minimum wages, because they know it will cement their market share. Just putting it out there, I find that it's often overlooked when discussing regulations, tax rates and so on.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#5No easy answer to this. All the tech companies do it, and if you start legislating the loopholes closed, they'll go to another state and maybe even another country. And you can't expect the companies to change on their own. They'd be sued if they didn't exploit all legal means of increasing shareholder profits.
I think it will take smart legislation added in increments over the course of years and years. good luck with that, Congress.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#6Would a corporate "buffet rule" solve this? Let companies do whatever shenanigans they want, but if they operate in the US and earn > $1 billion they can't owe less than 15%?
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#7They do this by following the tax laws; laws which we as a society have created in order to induce businesses to behave in certain ways.
I don't think the relationship between what the tax laws induce businesses to do, and what we as a society intended to them to do, is particularly straightforward. A lot of tax strategies seem more like emergent effects of multiple laws, often passed by several different jurisdictions, and often in different circumstances than the present ones.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#8It's somewhat interesting (or just entertaining) that things large corporations have been doing for ages are gaining new attention because we can throw Apple's name into the mix.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#9They do this by following the tax laws; laws which we as a society have created in order to induce businesses to behave in certain ways.
Yes, it's essentially federalism in practice. Working as intended.
Re: How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
#10They do this by following the tax laws; laws which we as a society have created in order to induce businesses to behave in certain ways.
So innovating the double Irish with a Dutch sandwich is "following" the law? It's more akin to hacking or circumventing them while still staying legal. Just because something is legal does not mean that it was the spirit of the law or the intention of society. That's why you see laws being changed to frequently to adapt to new scenarios and "innovations".
Not to mention that society hasn't much of a say these days, Congressmen need campaign money from corporate firms. As they re-invest some of that saved money into politicians to further gain more money, what chance does an individual voter have? Voting people out doesn't matter much when the alternatives are almost the same and need money for their re-election too.