…The New York Times reported that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is wrapping up an investigation into a number of technology companies that use specialized accounting practices to avoid U.S. taxes, which are higher than those levied in many foreign countries.
According to the sources, Apple had become the focus of the inquiry as its accountants have managed to allocate some 70 percent of taxable income overseas despite running a base of operations in the U.S. The tactics used are completely legal, though head of the investigations committee Senator Carl Levin said off-shoring income and intellectual property is hurting the U.S. budget and ultimately average Americans…
In its statement on Thursday, Apple said it was “one of the top corporate income taxpayers in the country, if not the largest…
For the past fiscal year, Apple said it paid “an enormous amount of taxes” to local, state and federal governments. “In fiscal 2012 we paid $6 billion in federal corporate income taxes, which is 1 out of every 40 dollars in corporate income taxes collected by the U.S. government,” according to the statement…
Apple is cooperating with Senator Levin’s investigation, “which is expected to yield recommendations to Congress” that may have an effect on future tax code discussions…when I am 275 years old.
The article is interesting to me as a weighty counter to childish geeks who treat Apple’s significance to the United States economy as if it still was two guys in a garage in California. They have no clue about the tax repatriation proposals already offered by Tim Cooke or the firm’s role in bettering working conditions abroad.
There is always some ivory tower biz major who whines about the suicide rate in some FoxConn factory town in China. A rate that is almost as high as [gasp] Cincinnati.