Comment by credo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by credo | Hacker News Reader

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Many of the comments seem to justify Apple's tax avoidance by pointing out (as the top comment says)"Investigators have not accused Apple of breaking any laws, and the company is hardly the only American multinational to face scrutiny for using complex corporate structures and tax havens to sidestep taxes."

However, it should be troubling that

1. Deception is considered excusable and that Companies care little about ethics and break the spirit of tax laws (if not the letter).

Redirecting US profits or European profits to other unrelated countries (on paper) and then claiming tax exemption clearly indicates deception. If they made their money in the US and claim that all of this money belongs to a subsidiary in Bermuda, that should be a matter of concern to everyone (regardless of whether this deception is legal or not)

2. It is true that many companies indulge in this type of deception and defend it as "legal" Often, it is the companies (through their lobbyists) who created these legalities. So it is disingenuous to defend their practices as legal. Obviously, Microsoft, Google and other large companies do the same (or similar) things. However, that doesn't do much to dispel the fact that each company engages in deception.

I agree, and find these practices deeply troubling. It is similar in Australia, where every now and then there is a story published about how extremely rich corporations or individuals pay a few million to accountants, and reduce their taxable income to almost zero dollars. Those accountants provide a massive ROI for these people.

Sure, it may be perfectly legal according to the law, but it seems grossly unfair. One of the premises of our tax system is that the well off shoulder a larger burden then those who earn less (for better or worse - I think for the better). But the people who don't earn as much cannot afford to spend millions of dollars on accountants to reduce their tax bills like this.

If everybody wants to work in a functioning society, where essential services are funded by the government, then there needs to be income. Everybody who can contribute, and should do their bit.

You should know that these companies are just making money and not paying taxes on it, they are making money and leaving it off shore. Should they ever need to bring it back to the US, they would pay tax on it as repatriated earnings. It's not like they are saying "Hey! We earned all this in Bermuda!" and then bringing the cash to America. It actually has to _stay_ out of the US (unless there is a repatriation holiday).

Source: my schooling. (CPA in Texas).

Repatriation holiday: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/05/14/173951/repatriat...

There are some real inconsistencies with what the committee claims and what Apple claims in the testimony they released today. In fact Apple said they comply with not only the laws, but also the "spirit of the laws"

>Apple complies fully with both the laws and spirit of the laws. And Apple pays all its required taxes, both in this country and abroad.

>Apple wants to make clear to the Subcommittee that the Company does not use its Irish subsidiaries or any other entities to engage in the following tax practices that were the focus of the Subcommittee’s September 20, 2012 hearing, entitled Offshore Profit Shifting and the US Tax Code. Specifically, Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US to avoid US tax, nor does it use revolving loans from CFCs to fund its domestic operations. Apple does not hold money on a Caribbean island, does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands, and does not move any taxable revenue from sales to US customers to other jurisdictions in order to avoid US taxation.

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