Slashdot Mirror
Apple Should Pay More Tax, Says Co-Founder Wozniak (bbc.com)
mrspoonsi quotes a report from BCC: All companies, including Apple, should pay a 50% tax rate, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has told the BBC. He said he doesn't like the idea that Apple does not pay tax at the same rate he does personally. "I don't like the idea that Apple might be unfair -- not paying taxes the way I do as a person. I do a lot of work, I do a lot of travel and I pay over 50% of anything I make in taxes and I believe that's part of life and you should do it." When asked if Apple should pay that amount, he replied: "Every company in the world should." He said he was never interested in money, unlike his former partner Steve Jobs. "Steve Jobs started Apple Computers for money, that was his big thing and that was extremely important and critical and good." Three years ago the company admitted two of its Irish subsidiaries pay a rate of 2%. It has built up offshore cash reserves of around $200 billion -- beyond the reach of U.S. tax officials. In a CBS '60 Minutes' episode, Apple CEO Steve Cook dismissed as "total political crap" the notion that the tech giant was avoiding taxes. And on a semi-related note, presidential candidate Donald Trump said in January he'd like to make Apple "start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of other countries." He said he would impose a 35% business tax on American business manufacturing outside of the U.S if elected president.
If the Woz is paying 50% in taxes, he's doing his finances wrong. Earned income is taxed at the highest rate. Portfolio and passive income is taxed a lower rate. He needs to convert his earned income into portfolio and/or passive income. The less earned income he has, the less in taxes he will pay.
Woz is saying he is paying MORE taxes than Apple. It's silly to ask him to pay more.
What Woz is trying to say is that taxes should be more progressive; a lot of rich people agree with him on this. Probably the first step would be to go to flatter and lower tax rates, but eliminate ANY deductions (even for mortgage interest). For personal income, any income up to the poverty line should be tax free, you only get taxed on the amount your income exceeds the poverty level by. Both conservatives and liberals are right about some things, but conservatives seem to have a better grasp of basic economics, hence flat tax proposals come from the conservative side. "Fair" is a pretty arbitrary standard; what is fair or not tends to get decided by those in a position to finance elections.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Large, privately-held business owner here. Business taxes aren't a "cost of doing business". They are levied on profits, and are supposed to raise revenue and encourage companies to invest (spend) their money rather than horde it, which is actively harmful to the economy.
As an owner or shareholder, you can extract revenue in various ways, and for most of us it makes sense to extract some through income (which is a business expense, so only income taxes are payable) and some through dividends (which are effectively taxed twice; once through corporation tax on the business's profits, then again through capital gains tax - still works out more efficient than just paying myself a huge salary). More complex equity deals can be even more tax efficient depending on circumstances.
If a company wants to use the money it would be paying in taxes for something useful, it can do so easily: invest in R&D, increase salaries to attract top talent or improve the quality of it's products; all of which reduce net profits in the short term, and thus corp. tax, but make the business more valuable and better able to compete in the future. Just sitting on a big pile of cash isn't good for the company or the wider economy - that capital should be invested in something useful rather than sat in an index fund making stockbrokers and HFT shops even more insufferable than they already are.