Land of the Free Rent- Apple and Tax Avoidance

[hinoema]

WASHINGTON - Even as Apple became the nation's most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday

Comments

[pyroyale]

You may want to check your post title, OP, as the article terms it as avoidance and not evasion (sorry, former tax worker so I get twitchy about using the correct one).

Apple and a million other companies, to be honest. I'm sure the list of companies paying everything they owe is far smaller than the list of companies that aren't. Governments are largely more interested in chasing the workers than the big companies unless their hands are forced.

[hinoema]

Got it. :)

[kittenmommy]

Apple and a million other companies, to be honest. I'm sure the list of companies paying everything they owe is far smaller than the list of companies that aren't.

Bingo.

[cindyanne1]

It's like I tell my husband when I'm doing the taxes at the end of the year and we're in our usual shell-shocked state; our business doesn't make enough money to afford avoiding taxes. It takes money to set up that elaborate and complicated tax avoidance hoopla. And then I get angry, because all businesses should have to pay their fair share, ESPECIALLY those who make that kind of money.

[hinoema]

I dropped a >. Thanks!

[the_physicist]

Okay, I have a lot of feelings on the issues of multinationals not paying their taxes fairly. In general what I think is that calling on people not to buy XYZ products because XYZ company is doing bullshit is not going to change a dicky thing. Nothing will be changed by that at all. The issue is that politicians don't actually want to go up against big business. The activism should be on the political front and targeted at changing tax laws etc. Everything else is pointless and a waste of time.

[hinoema]

What, we can't multi-task? I can choose to not buy Company X and simultaneously vote against their interests, support legislative reforms, etc. If nothing else, I don't personally feel like a hypocrite by sending my congresscritter an e-mail on my iThingy.

[the_physicist]

Okay, multitasking is good ;) . I guess it's the whole slacktivism argument all over again. That there are definitely people who do boycott some products that they can easily afford to boycott, but then feel that their job is done at that and don't put in any effort to anything else related to the issue. Obviously that doesn't apply to those who do the boycotting, just to feel good about themselves/not feel like a hypocrit etc, but then actually know that that won't change the issue and then do stuff that might help bring about change too.

Does that make a bit more sense?

I run into the 'boycott stuff!' people a lot in my mum's circles and it always strikes me as them just doing this in order to kid themselves that they are doing something that'll bring about change, so they can ignore the nagging issue that something is actually wrong in the world.

um. guh. i am bad at talking some times. lol.

[hinoema]

Oh, I agree. Just boycotting something by itself doesn't do much; there are far more effective ways to object to a company. That definitely is the minimum bar. Still, large enough boycotts can have an effect- here's a page with some boycotts that have actually had definite effects. (Organization on a large scale seems to be the key.)

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/successfulboycotts.aspx

[crossfire]

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dammit now I want popcorn

[hinoema]

Cheese popcorn.

[crossfire]

JUST GIVE ME THE POPCORN AND NOBODY GETS HURT