On Tuesday, May 21, the U.S. Senate held a hearing on changes in tax legislation. Now, there are loopholes in the American legal framework that allow companies to circumvent the payment of taxes to the US budget by creating subsidiaries in offshore zones. However, this does not bother Apple CEO Tim Cook, who believes that such a scheme does not violate US tax laws in any way.
The Senate Standing Committee on Investigations found that using an offshore scheme, only in 2012 Apple managed to avoid tax payments to the US budget by $ 9 billion. To do this, the Cupertino company uses 3 offshore zones around the world, where it has its subsidiaries.
Tim Cook replied that his company is the largest taxpayer in the United States and in 2012 paid more than $6 billion to the budget. «This year we plan to pay even more taxes. We pay all taxes, it is our responsibility, », — said the CEO of Apple.
«The success of our work does not depend on tax tricks. We did not change intellectual property offshore to sell products back to the US to avoid paying taxes. We don't save money on Caribbean offshore», — Tim continued.
True, his answer did not really satisfy Senator John McCain, a former US presidential candidate from the Republican Party: "Of course, Apple is a great success story, but your tax strategy reflects the imperfection of the American tax system."
The CEO of Apple noted that he supports the reform of US corporate tax legislation. They provide for deoffshorization of American companies, reduction of corporate income tax rates and reasonable tax rates on foreign currency earnings. «We recognize these and other improvements in the American tax system and understand that this may increase our tax payments », — Cook noted.
Of course, the tax issue is not the most important in Apple's life. It is much more interesting for us, the users, to learn about new products and services that the company is working on. But you will agree that it is much more pleasant to use the products of a company that conducts its business honestly, don't you think?
