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Apple Has a Record $250 Billion In Cash, 90% of It Is Banked Overseas (phonearena.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the world-record dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phone Arena: On Tuesday, Apple is expected to report its fiscal second quarter earnings. In that report, the tech titan will reportedly announce that it is holding $250 billion in cash. If you think that this is a lot of money, you're absolutely right. According to Marketwatch.com, this is more than the foreign currency reserves held by the U.K. and Canada combined. Looking at it another way, at current valuations Apple could purchase all of the outstanding shares of Walmart and Procter & Gamble and still have money left over. It has taken Apple only 4 and half years to double its cash hoard. During the fiscal first quarter of 2017, Apple was adding $3.6 million to its cash position every hour. It finished the quarter ending in December with $246.09 billion in cash. 90% of the money is banked overseas, which means that Apple would be one of the companies to benefit the most from President Trump's plan to offer a one time tax break on repatriated funds.

7 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. joy by zlives · · Score: 5, Insightful

    wish i could pay no taxes

    1. Re: joy by Rei · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They shouldn't get a "tax break", because there shouldn't be a tax on foreign profits to begin with, as in almost all of the rest of the world. You pay taxes on where you're operating. .... unless, for some strange reason, if you're headquartered in America.

      --
      "He's a liar whose lawyer is lying about his lying lawyer's lies."
    2. Re: joy by bigpat · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Bingo... We are the only country in the world that taxes money coming in and subsidizes money going out. We really need to bring that money back to the US and off set that by raising taxes on the top 5 or 10% while lowering taxes on middle income folks and the corporations that employ us.

  2. Ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, let's say that you have $250 in savings, but 93% of is in an account that penalizes you 35% to use it in the US, would you use it? Let's say the government changes the rule and now it is only 20%, does that really change the situation?

    I mean if the US government thinks that a 10% penalty on early withdrawal from a 401K is sufficient to dissuade an average consumer, what do you think 20% looks like to a corporation whose every spend is scrutinized by Wall Street?

    Even crazier, with the cost of debt being so cheap, it is actually smarter to leverage to pay for things in the US than to repatriate that money. If they bought a large US based company, they would not use this money, and instead would leverage themselves (either through loans of stock) to complete the sale.

  3. I don't mind paying taxes by stevez67 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't mind paying my taxes. I get a lot in return. I mind that corporations doing business in the USA, and other people, don't pay taxes.

    1. Re: I don't mind paying taxes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Apple, like every other multinational, pays taxes in the country where the product was sold. Apple paid tax on every dollar made in the US and elsewhere. The USA is the only country in the world that taxes you a second time to move money that was already taxed back home. Result? Apple keeps the money elsewhere. So would anyone else.

    2. Re: I don't mind paying taxes by r1348 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, Apple then seems to sell a damn lot of iPhones in Ireland...