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

Apple lent $20,000 to every taxpayer

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, you can spin a financial operation both ways. Apple _lent_ money to the US gov by buying bonds. The US Gov paid interest in return.

Re:Um, so?

[fermion]

I think the point is that major corporations are using US bonds as a tax shelter, and if they had paid taxes instead of investing in US debt, the US debt might not be at it's present level of 100% of GDP.

OTOH, this is kind of good news. If Trump pisses off China so that it begins to dump US public debt, it will be nice that US corporations have significant incentive to pick up the debt.