Every US Taxpayer Has Effectively Paid Apple At Least $6 in Recent Years (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader shares an ArsTechnica report: Apple has received at least $6 per American taxpayer over the last five years in the form of interest payments on billions' worth of United States Treasury bonds, according to a report by Bloomberg. Citing Apple's regulatory filings and unnamed sources, the business publication found "the Treasury Department paid Apple at least $600 million and possibly much more over the past five years in the form of interest." By taking advantage of a provision in the American tax code, Bloomberg says that Apple has "stashed much of its foreign earnings -- tax-free -- right here in the US, in part by purchasing government bonds." As The Wall Street Journal reported in September, American companies are believed to be holding approximately $2 trillion in cash overseas that is shielded from US taxes. Under American law, companies must pay a 35-percent corporate tax rate on global profits when that money is brought home -- so there is an incentive to keep as much of that money overseas as possible.

Comments

Google, Motorola, Intel . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

also to blame. Picking on Apple for this is really pretty silly. Every large multi-national company does this.

Re:Google, Motorola, Intel . . .

[PopeRatzo]

1) money will come back into the US and help our economy

It's unproven that money being shifted from an overseas bank to a US bank will "help the economy".

In fact, if it comes back and ends up in the hands of a few or used for one company to buy another it could very well hurt our economy.

Further, it's not "the economy" that needs help. It's people. And for the past 35 years, there's been little proof that helping the former necessarily helps the latter.

Um, so?

[Geoffrey.landis]

Uh, this is the most uninteresting news ever. So, you're saying that Apple has put a lot of its spare cash into government bonds, which pay out the usual government bond interest; which are actually historically relatively low rates compared to other interest rates. This is interesting why, exactly?

You know who else we are paying? Nazis.

[SuperKendall]

Far worse than Apple being given our hard-earned money, is the fact that somewhere, sometime, a real life Illinois Nazi has bought a government bond. Who knows how many DECADES we taxpayers have been paying these loathsome groups?

Clearly what the government needs to do to cut off the funds to monsters like Apple and Nazis is default on all government bonds today and declare no more will we be paying anyone these ill-gotten gains labeled with the seemingly innocent moniker "interest".

Fake news

[slapout]

Headline should read: "Apple loans U.S. Government money"