NY Times Apple Tax Article Flawed

bonch writes "Forbes contributer Tim Worstall points out that the NY Times article claiming Apple pays less than 10 percent of its profit in taxes was based on a flawed assumption of the corporate tax system. The 9.8% figure came from Greenlining Institute, who compared Apple's 2011 profits to taxes calculated according to 2010 profits. In the corporate tax system, estimated quarterly tax payments are made based on the previous year's profits until actual profits are calculated at the end of the trading year, when the balance is then paid to the IRS."

Comments

Re:Whatever Apple's paying

[khipu]

It's not nearly enough. These people (er i mean corporations) should be paying taxes just like other people. Last year I paid 28%. Sound good, Apple?

Why? That just encourages them to move more and more of their operations overseas because they can't stay competitive if the US charges them 28% but their competitors pay a fraction of that elsewhere.

Furthermore, corporations just have to raise prices, so in the end consumers pay for it. And they pay for it in a regressive way.

And assuming you work for a corporation, those 28% that "you" paid was actually paid by your employer, because that's where all your money comes from.

Corporations should pay taxes proportional to the costs they impose on the community. Most of those are imposed through labor, and that's covered by the income tax. If they impose additional costs, they should pay for it. But just trying to milk them because you can makes no sense and only hurts people.