Tag Archives: Senate

Senate report shows Apple avoided billions in taxes on foreign income

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A new Senate report (PDF from The New York Times) shows that Apple has been employing potentially sketchy business methods to avoid heavier tax burdens. According to the investigation, the company dodged billions in potential taxes on $44 billion in foreign income during the past four years.

Some of the interesting bits from the Senate’s report: three Apple subsidiaries in Ireland claim no responsibility to pay income taxes to any country. Apple Operations International, one of the Ireland three, reported $30 billion in income during 2009 to 2012 despite having no employees and not filing income taxes anywhere within the last five years. Apple did not violate any laws during this time according to the Senate investigation.

As The Chicago Tribune notes, many of the tactics Apple employed are common for multinational corporations (see cost-sharing arrangements). Google and Amazon were slammed by British parliament last year for their own tax-tiptoeing practices abroad. Nevertheless, the information released today cannot be welcomed by Cupertino with its CEO set to speak in front of Congress tomorrow. The Tribune quoted written testimony for that hearing which addresses this new tax spotlight. According to those statements, Apple does not utilize “tax gimmicks” and “has substantial foreign cash because it sells the majority of its products outside the US.” The company also reiterates that it pays plenty of US taxes, a defense it used in the face of tax accusations last year.

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Apple CEO to testify to Congress on $100 billion cash stash, taxes, jobs

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Apple CEO Tim Cook.
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Unlike his predecessor, Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t appear reluctant to face down a Senate subcommittee. He’s due to appear in Washington DC next week to testify at a Senate hearing on offshore profit shifting and he plans to directly address the concerns Congress is raising:

The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts.

The roles of “representatives of a multinational corporation” will be filled by Cook along with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Apple Head of Tax Operations Phillip Bullock.

The Senate subcommittee will be grilling Apple on exactly why the company keeps more than $100 billion of its infamous cash hoard in non-US banks. The accusatory undertone is that Apple is engaging in what the subcommittee will almost certainly characterize as tax avoidance (and Apple’s issuing of bonds last month to generate additional cash certainly isn’t going to help). But in a string of preemptive interviews with publications various and sundry, including the Washington Post and Politico, Cook appears unconcerned. Instead it sounds like he is viewing the congressional summons as a teaching opportunity.

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Julian Assange files formal application to run for Australian Senate

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Julian Assange’s formal application to the Australian Electoral Commission in Melbourne was filed on Tuesday by a supporter on his behalf.

Assange announced his intentions late last year and is now putting himself forward as a candidate of the newly formed WikiLeaks Party from the state of Victoria in the Australian Senate as part of the September 14, 2013 federal election. The party has yet to be formally registered with the Australian Electoral Commission and does not show up yet on its website.

The domain names wikileaksparty.com and wikileaksparty.org—neither of which are live—are registered to Tim Neal of Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia—264 kilometers (164 miles) southwest of Melbourne. Neal appears to be a deputy national president of the Australian Democrats party. Neal also seems to have been a candidate for Senate in the past, according to a Facebook page.

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Senate Approves Hike in Airline Security Fees

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(WASHINGTON) — A Democratic-controlled Senate panel Tuesday approved a $2.50 increase in airline security fees that would double the per-passenger fee for those taking nonstop flights. The move by the Senate Appropriations Committee would increase the fee on a nonstop round-trip flight from $5 to $10. Fees on a one-way, nonstop ticket would increase from [...]