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0 pointsglurgh13y ago0 comments

as far as IRS is concerned, Apple Inc. is barely breaking even therefore is not paying its fair tax share.

Is this really true, though?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/apple-tax-rate-igno...

Among various other points it says Apple paid 6 billion in taxes last year which sounds unlikely if they were 'barely breaking even'.

I don't have any trouble believing that a large multinational has the means, opportunity and incentive to exploit every bit of every tax code it is subject to in order to minimize its tax liability. I'm just finding it difficult to get a handle on the basic issues between the 'zomg corporations, our evil overlords' and 'leave Britney/Apple/the free global market alone' rhetoric. My vain hope is to somehow summon up some grellas-like entity who is knowledgable in these matters and will provide a bit of level-headed insight.

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lubos13y ago· 1 in thread

You are actually right. They pay corporate tax in USA on profits generated in USA.

What they really do is that they don't pay their rightful share in other countries such as Australia and UK where they transfer profits to Ireland through phony IP claims.

For example, their net profit margin in Australia was less than 2% in last financial year which means they paid only $40 million in tax on revenue of $6 billion.

All that profit which should have been taxed in Australia and in other countries now sits somewhere currently untaxed in Ireland.

glurghOP13y ago

Let's just take that as a given, but Apple's tax status in other countries is not why their CEO gets called to testify before the US Senate - my questions were specifically about that.

Not that we're going to get much further in this, though, given that the submission dropped off the front page and into the dark recesses of HN a few minutes ago.

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