Apple Plans to Pay $38B in Repatriation Taxes | Hacker News Reader

Apple Plans to Pay $38B in Repatriation Taxes

wsj.com

27 pointschrisacky10 comments

Trump is gonna take credit for this, is he not?

Not a Trump supporter, but I don't see why he shouldn't. Apple probably wasn't going to do this unless that tax deal (or something similar) went through.

This is exactly from his tax bill that got passed, so yes he will. I'm not a fan of Trump, but every single global US company will be paying billions of taxes to the US government for the 2018 fiscal year. It also means that they will be able to move money back into the US with no penalties anymore. I'm actually surprised at the constitutionality of this, taxing companies going back to 1986, if I remember correctly.

> I'm actually surprised at the constitutionality of this, taxing companies going back to 1986, if I remember correctly.

Why are you surprised? The power to tax income regardless of source is in black and white.

Statute of limitations should be a protection against this. Personal income tax has a statute of limitations of 7 years. This is a tax grab going back 30 years.

> Statute of limitations should be a protection against this.

Statutes of limitations for taxes run from when the taxes first become due, not from when income is earned.

And the statute of limitations isn't a Constitutional protection.

Well it happened on his watch, Obama never made it happen. So why not?

What's the point of repatriating this money?

It's great PR, affirms Apple as a company that takes care of its U.S.A obligations, and goes a long way towards pre-empting negative publicity on other areas such as slowing down old phones.

"I know we're in trouble here for our corporate behaviour, but HEY... look over here at how good we are." That sort of thing works and matters and is indeed true.... it sets a good example and allows Apple to take the moral high ground which is where its marketing is positioned... as a good guy.

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