.
In this
story from the New York Times it is reported (or really whined about) how
little Apple pays in taxes. The story starts off by talking about how Apple put
an office in Reno to side step paying higher California taxes. Technology
companies in general can move their headquarters to different states or around
the world more easily than manufacturing companies due to the fact that making
software, applications, or intellectual property doesn't require billions of
dollars of capital investment in property, plant, and equipment.
Apple paid $3.3 billion and had a
profit of a little more than $34 billion which makes their effective tax rate
less than 10%. One technique that Apple uses to reduce their taxes is what is
known as the double Irish arrangement. This is part of a tax avoidance by
placing intellectual property outside the United States and without paying U.S.
taxes. The money from the intellectual property is licensed from an outside
company from Apple that is located in Ireland, and licenses the rights to a
second company also owned by Apple that is also located in Ireland. The second
company gets income and taxed at a low rate and avoids being taxed at high U.S.
rates. It important to know that tax avoidance is perfectly legal and different
from tax evasion which is where someone purposely goes out of their way not to
report income, defraud the IRS, or essentially never intending to pay their
taxes. Apple should be commended on such accounting excellence. Also Apple is
not the only company that takes advantage of this. Eli Lilly, Google, Microsoft,
and even Pfizer use the same strategy to lower their taxes. I would also point
out that hiring the people to find these strategies is not cheap. Tax ninjas are
not only expensive, but are not easy to come by. The true cost is adding in
what it cost in time and money for the services of the tax ninjas.
I love how the New York Times tries
to vilify Apple for not only pay their taxes but to suggest that companies like
Apple are the reason why states of California are now facing a financial
crisis. California is in crisis because of generous benefits to state
employees, overspending, and high tax rates which lead not only companies but
people out of the state. If California simply lived within their means and
lowered state rates you would see people starting to move back.
The tax system is not only
complicated at the personal level but also at the corporate level. GE filed a 57,000
page tax return. This seems ridiculous. How many hours and money was spent
simply on the return? The tax code needs to be revamped at both the personal
and corporate level. My suggestion would be to have a progressive tax rate at
the personal level without any deductions. At the corporate level I would
propose a flat 15% level. You might say “This will deprive the government of
revenue!” The problem is government spends whatever it can get its hands on. I
would argue that lower corporate rates would bring business back into the
United States which would increase revenue which actually would be a problem since
Congress would spend it. At the same time I would propose a balanced budget
act. My balance budget act would be a little different. If Congress was not
able to balance the budget everyone in Congress would be fired. This would make
for interesting politics and ensure some accountability. Until any of this happens companies will use
all possible deductions, credits, schemes, and sandwiches to keep more of their
money.
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