Chicago - A message from the station manager

Apple’s $38 Billion Tax Payment Less Than Half Of $79 Billion They Owe

By Jon Queally/Common Dreams

Tech giant Apple made international headlines and inspired President Donald Trump to brag overnight about his role in making it all possible after announcing it would pay approximately $38 billion in taxes as it repatriates large sums of overseas cash holdings. But that dollar figure is less than half of what tax analysts say the company should be paying for those earnings.


With the Trump and GOP lowering the repatriation tax rate from 35 percent down to 15.5 percent, the lobbying by powerful and wealthy corporations – including Apple – is finally paying dividends.


The repatriation measure included in the new tax law passed by Republicans and signed by Trump will result in multinational corporations receiving an overall estimated tax cut of $413 billion.
Regarding future investments the company is now promising, reporting suggests that may have happened with or without the tax repatriation windfall.
Besides:


“We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
Will Rice, however, senior writer with Americans for Tax Fairness, challenged that narrative in a blog post, arguing Apple’s clear goal in promoting its repatriation “is to curry favor with the Trump administration by creating the mirage of positive economic news closely following the tax overhaul. The goal is to obscure the fact that the new law is a massive giveaway to huge multinational corporations like Apple.”
And if Apple’s sense of responsibility to “give back” is so deep, why avoid paying U.S. taxes on its earnings at the set rate for all these years? Of course many taxpayers around the world feel their rates are too high, but most pay their taxes dutifully nonetheless – many happily and gladly.
Perhaps, as Jason Rhodes wrote for Salon, it’s because Apple’s most significant innovation over recent years is not its mind-blowing and fast-selling tech gadgets but its ability to dodge taxes across the globe. As Rhodes argues, it’s very difficult to even imagine what a large number $252 billion actually is.

That’s more than the foreign-currency reserves of Britain and Canada. A quarter trillion dollars. Sound that out in your mind, and then say it with your mouth. The phrase ‘quarter trillion dollars’ is 22 letters and six syllables, and I’m afraid it doesn’t quite do justice to the amount of capital involved.

And: “When Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Dec. 22, 2017, he rewarded Apple for keeping its money overseas, away from starving Americans and veterans with health problems. And Apple was party to all of this. Last year, the Big Five Tech companies increased lobbyist spending by 24.3 percent. By the third quarter of 2017, Apple spent $2.23 million petitioning Congress.”
As journalist David Dayen warned, as he explored how many corporations are enjoying the GOP tax cuts even as they lay off workers or fail to increase wages, “don’t let a twisted and dishonest PR scheme by massive companies grateful for Trump’s huge Christmas present distort the truth.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
–
See also:
* International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Apple Claims To Be A Good Corporate Citizen, But Is It Really?
“Apple said it would bring hundreds of billions of dollars in offshore cash back to the United States. But how good a corporate citizen is Apple really being? We dissect the latest announcement by the iPhone-marker.”
* A Bloody Decade Of The iPhone.
“The long and complicated supply chain has caused innumerable work injuries, occupational diseases and premature deaths over the past decade.”
–
Previously in tax scammage:
* Deepwater Horizon Settlement Comes With $5.35 Billion Tax Windfall.
* Offshoring By 29 Companies Costs Illinois $1.2 Billion Annually.
* Government Agencies Allow Corporations To Write Off Billions In Federal Settlements.
* The Gang Of 62 Vs. The World.
* How The Maker Of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing.
* $1.4 Trillion: Oxfam Exposes The Great Offshore Tax Scam Of U.S. Companies.
* How Barclay’s Turned A $10 Billion Profit Into A Tax Loss.
* Wall Street Stock Loans Drain $1 Billion A Year From German Taxpayers.
* German Finance Minister Cries Foul Over Tax Avoidance Deals.
* Prosecutor Targets Commerzbank For Deals That Dodge German Taxes.
* A Schlupfloch Here, A Schlupfloch There. Now It’s Real Money.
* How Milwaukee Landlords Avoid Taxes.
* Study: 32 Illinois Fortune 500 Companies Holding At Least $147 Billion Offshore.
* Watch Out For The Coming Tax Break Trickery.
* When A ‘Tax Bonanza’ Is Actually A Huge Corporate Tax Break.
* The Hypocrisy Of Corporate Welfare: It’s Bigger Than Trump.
* Oxfam Names World’s Worst Tax Havens Fueling ‘Global Race To Bottom.’
* Offshore Tax Havens Cost Average Illinois Small Business $5,789 A Year.
* State Tax Incentives To Corporations Don’t Work.
* GOP Tax Plan Would Give 15 Of America’s Largest Corporations A $236 Billion Tax Cut.
* Triumph Of The Oligarchs.
* Amazon Short-List Proves Something “Deeply Wrong” With America’s Race-To-The-Bottom Economy.
–
Previously in carried interest, aka The Billionaire’s Loophole:
* Patriotic Millionaires Vs. Carried Interest.
* The Somewhat Surreal Politics Of A Private Equity Tax Loophole Costing Us Billions (That Obama Refused To Close Despite Pledging To Do So).
* Fact-Checking Trump & Clinton On The Billionaire’s Tax Break.
* Despite Trump Campaign Promise, Billionaires’ Tax Loophole Survives Again.
* Carried Interest Reform Is a Sham.
–
Previously in The Paradise Papers:
* ‘Paradise Papers’ Reveal Tax Avoidance, Shady Dealings Of World’s Rich And Powerful.
* Just How Much Money Is Held Offshore? Hint: A SHIT-TON.
* Development Dreams Lost In The Offshore World.
* Keeping Offshore ‘Hush Hush,’ But Why?
* Tax Havens Are Alive With The Sound Of Music.
* Today In Tax Avoidance Of The Ultra-Wealthy.
* Go To Town With This Offshore Leaks Database.
* The Paradise Papers: The View From Africa And Asia.
* The Paradise Papers: The End Of Elusion For PokerStars.
* The Paradise Papers: An Odd Call From The Bermuda Government.
* The Paradise Papers: Nevis Is An Offshore Haven Of Opportunity
* The Paradise Papers: The Long Twilight Struggle Against Offshore Secrecy.
* The Paradise Papers: A Fair Tax System Will Be Lost Without Public Pressure.
–
Previously in The Panama Papers:
* The Panama Papers: Remarkable Global Media Collaboration Cracks Walls Of Offshore Tax Haven Secrecy.
* The Panama Papers: Prosecutors Open Probes.
* The [Monday] Papers.
* Adventures In Tax Avoidance.
* Mossack Fonseca’s Oligarchs, Dictators And Corrupt White-Collar Businessmen.
* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! They’re All In It Together.
* Meet The Panama Papers Editor Who Handled 376 Reporters In 80 Countries.
–
Comments welcome.

Permalink

Posted on January 24, 2018