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Cupertino's Mayor: Apple 'Abuses Us' By Not Paying Taxes (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on The Guardian: Apple pays a 2.3% effective tax rate on its $181bn in cash held offshore, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a not-for-profit research group focusing on tax policy. Citizens for Tax Justice estimates that Apple would owe $59.2bn in U.S. taxes if the money weren't funneled into offshore shell accounts. Criticism over the company's offshore tax schemes has become more pointed in recent months, both locally in Cupertino and from Apple's own staff. At a recent Cupertino city council meeting, some residents protested about a lack of funding for public projects, Barry Chang, Mayor of Cupertino said: "They ball up the paper and throw it, and they say 'You're making all the wrong decisions'," Chang said. "In the meantime, Apple is not willing to pay a dime. They're making profit, and they should share the responsibility for our city, but they won't. They abuse us."
Dear Mayor Chang,
What part of "building permit" and "property taxes" don't you understand? If you folks let Apple build a giant doughnut in Cupertino without the city collecting adequate local taxes on it, you can hardly blame us, can you...?
your friend,
Tim Cook
There shouldn't be a negotiation and they shouldn't be asking Apple (or anyone else) to volunteer. There should be a law, the amount owed should be definite, failure to pay would be a crime. That law should apply to everyone, equally.
Until the government, at all levels, fixes their shit, their shit is going to be broken. I am tired of hearing about Apple or Google or Facebook doing NOTHING wrong, but accused of something that sounds like (but is not) a crime.
We have set up a system where there is a game, and good players are going to game the system. So fix the system or fix the game.
how can Cupertino be broke
No matter how much money any government receives in taxes, they will always spend more and borrow whatever they can get away with.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
City Government: Please come to our city, Big Business! We'll give you incredible tax breaks! We'll practically pay you just for existing here!
Big Business: I don't know. That "practically" sounds kind of hesitant. Besides, there's a bunch of other towns down the road that might offer us a better deal.
City Government: Fine, we will literally pay to just to keep your corporate headquarters here. We'll give you the land for a pittance. We'll fast-track the permitting process. We'll give you a zoning variance. None of the city ordinances will apply to you. And no direct taxes on you, we promise. We'll make it up by taxing our citizens, who will probably mostly be working for you from here on out.
Citizen: Hold on. I was busy with my life just then, but it sounds like you're going to let some huge company move in and take over, and use my taxes to build a new thirty-story corporate headquarters in my front yard, and then crank up my taxes even more to make up for the taxes you spent on them?
City Government: Yes, but you'll be able to afford it, because you can get a good job at the company!
Citizen: I like my job now. I don't want to fucking work for those fuckers. I don't want a bunch of douches coming in and putting in 17 Starbuckses on the same street and making us all have to sort our garbage into eight separate bins and raising the rents to ridiculous levels so we have to all move out.
City Government: We hear your concerns. But we really want more tax money to play with. So, fuck you. Leave town if you want. Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out.
[Decades later.]
City Government: Hey, Big Business, uh, while our tax revenue has been growing continuously for decades now, it turns out that our expenditures have been growing even faster, because it turns out that a lot of money is not infinite money. We need infinite money. All our planning is based on infinite money. You need to give us more money. That'll get us closer to infinite money.
Big Business: Fuck you. Learn to do math, assholes.
City Government: I'm afraid we really must insist. We're going to raise your taxes.
Big Business: Then I guess we'll just move down the road to the next city. See you later.
City Government: But... but... you can't!
[But it turns out they can. Return to top and start again.]
So all those high paid Apple employees don't pay property taxes on their homes in the area? They don't pay sales taxes on the stuff they buy around town?
How does a local city government think it is entitled to tax revenue earned on sales in (other country) after the company already paid (other country) income taxes?
> We have set up a system where there is a game, and good players
> are going to game the system. So fix the system or fix the game.
Any time you establish rules, people will figure out how to use those rules to their advantage. Money is a self-feeding machine -- the more money you make, the more you can spend on accountants and lawyers to help you figure out how to make and keep more money. (And no sense mentioning that once you have enough money, you can start buying the laws you want anyway.)
Tax based on profits? OK, we'll figure out a way to keep our books to show no profit. Tax based on sales? OK, we don't sell things, we lease or rent them. Tax based on cash hoard? OK, we'll figure out a way to spend every penny we make. Number of employees? Sorry, we only have contractors. Executive pay? Our executives make $1/year, and then we give them stock and benefits. Etc etc etc.
Every rule, by definition, will give SOMEONE an advantage. Any entity with money *will* figure out a way to make sure that "someone" is always THEM.
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