Senate Subcomittee Investigating Apple’s Offshore Tax Practices
Infowars.com
May 16, 2013In lieu of the recent IRS scandal it might seem a little like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Nevertheless, it looks like Apple CEO Tim Cook will be appearing in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday, May 21, to explain why the company is borrowing money to pay investors when they have $102 billion in offshore funds.
As of March 2013 Apple reported having a total of $145 billion cash on hand, but $102 billion was stashed in offshore funds. On April 24, CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would return $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015. To finance the expanded capital return, Apple will raise its dividend 15 percent and increase its share buyback program six-fold to $60 billion. In other words, Apple is going to go into debt, for the first time in more than a decade, in order to keep investors happy.
Why go into debt? Why not just use some of those offshore billions they’ve got lying around gathering dust? Because, to bring that money into the U.S., Apple would have to pay a 35 percent corporate tax. Why pay an outrageous tax bill when a company with a AA-rating like Apple’s can borrow money at a 1.9% interest rate?
Under current tax laws, money in offshore accounts can not be spent or invested in the United States. It can’t even be given to the shareholders who rightfully own the money, until someone antes up 35% to cover the taxes. At that point, once the taxes are paid, the investors would also be responsible for paying income taxes on their dividends – a double whammy for investors.
It should be noted that the money in these offshore accounts was earned outside the U.S. and the appropriate taxes are paid to the countries involved.
For major corporations like Apple, whch has more money than it knows what to do with, it just makes sense to leave that money in offshore accounts. Analysts estimate that the amount of corporate money in offshore accounts could exceed $1 trillion, money which could be boosting the US economy if it were repatriated.
Apple isn’t the only U.S.-based corporation holding money in offshore accounts. Last year, a lobbying coalition consisting of Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Apple sought a tax holiday, similar to one in 2004, for repatriating offshore funds. In 2004 Congress agreed to let companies repatriate money at a discounted tax rate of only 5 percent.
The 2012 effort was suspended because Republicans were focused more on permanent tax policy and Democrats were worried about the potential loss of tax revenue.
What they failed to understand is that there is no loss of revenue as long as Apple and other major corporations can use those offshore funds to secure low-interest loans right here on American soil. It only makes sense: Why pay a 35% tax when you can get the same results with a 1.9% loan?
Should You Go to Jail for Unlocking Your Phone? (by ReasonTV)
The Red (computer) Scare: Is the Chinese military behind hundreds of hacking instances since 2006? One U.S. computer security firm believes so, fanning concerns that U.S. digital infrastructure, both private and governmental, isn’t up to snuff. From reporter Michael Muskall’s look at Mandiant’s findings:
The hacking activity was likely part of the mandate of the Unit 61398 of China’s People’s Liberation Army, identified in the report as “one of the most persistent of China’s cyber threat actors.” The unit is based in the Pudong New Area, outside of Shanghai from where the computer attacks originate.
Read the report for yourself here, and see if you agree that the recent hacking spree, which has targeted companies from Facebook and Apple to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, is being dictated by the Chinese government.
Photo: Keith Bedford / Bloomberg
Apple Inc cut the price on the base version of its 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop with “retina” display by $200 as it revamps its top-end laptops, weeks after the company reported a steep decline in Mac sales in the holiday quarter.
Investors have worried that Apple’s iPad is cannibalizing its Mac range, but Chief Executive Tim Cook has brushed aside these concerns.
The company sold 4.1 million Macs in the December quarter, down 21 percent from a year earlier.
At one of his seminars, a student asked Professor Mises, “Why aren’t all businessmen in favor of capitalism?” “That very question,” Mises answered, “is Marxist.” Mises’s response shocked me at the time. It took me some time to realize what he meant. The questioner assumed, as had Karl Marx, that businessmen had a special group or “class” interest in capitalism that other people didn’t.
—Bettina Bien Greaves. Part I Introduction to Economic Freedom and Interventionism
(via seattle-gadgets)Why I have next to no chance of ever getting hired.
1. I spoke out publicly on being Aspergers. This now days is a no no. Even if you do it to help others understand Aspergers. A lot of HR departments will search the web and find my name next posts talking about being Aspergers.
This makes me hire risk because of the ADA. They will see me as a lawsuit waiting to happen. Even if I despise such lawsuits.
2. I spoke out on politics publicly. Again this is a no no. Considering were I stand on politics and who is currently in the Whitehouse. Then my degree is also in an industry that is incredibly leftest. If you are libertarian, never get a entertainment based degree like me. You will never get work.
Again HR will search my name and come up with political posts with my name attached.
3. I have spoke out on student loans and the waste of college degrees. Another unpopular topic that one should never speck of if one wants work.
4. The new trend of personality tests. Both law end jobs, like retail and high end jobs like what Epic Systems has to offer. Now require a personality test as a job requirement.
I have never passed one in my life. There for this tests are a barrier to me. A wall to my chances of employment. Personality is more important then skill now days. Personality also does not mean you can’t do the job ether. I can fake happy. It would be like a acting job. Pulse with some jobs, why do you have to be perky? Why is this a requirement?
In some stores were they have this personality tests. I have seen some of the most grumpy people in the world. Who can careless about their jobs. So if the personality tests are working. Why do they have the opposite in the types of people they hire?
5. Some employers will hire you based on your credit score and amount of debt. As an example. If you have a large amount of debt. You can’t get security clearance. Both in the private sector and the goverment.
With the amount of student debt I have racketed up. I have no why of getting these kinds of jobs.
6. I have no industry experience. Before the economy went into its nose dive. My industry of animation. The hire out from grads at my school was close to a 100%. After the economy fell on its face. The industry retroactively started to require three years of industry experience.
When you are fresh out of college how the hell are you expected to have 3 years of industry experience? I had a lot of employers who loved my work, but they were not willing to hire based on that sole fact I had no experience in the industry experience. “Sorry Joe we love your work but you have no experience!”
7. I am stuck loving with parents because of my lack of employment prospects. We I live. If you have a 4 year degree. You have no chance at work. It does not matter what degree it is. It could be in underwater basket weaving and you could not get hire.
Here is why. 1. You are considered a flight risk, they will think you will go for a better paid job the minute you find one. 2. Jealously on the part of the hiring mangers, “he has a degree and I don’t!” 3. The mangers fear you because of your degree. They think you are out for their job.
With all of this I have zero chance of ever getting hired by anyone, anywhere. There is no light at the end of my tunnel. It has caved in and is permanently blocked.
Education and me.
Wonders why when I am trying to take responsibility for my actions. People don’t want me to, aka my debt. It is my fault for being duped in to this loan scam. I did not do my job as a consumer and now I am paying for my stupidity. Ignorance is not bless, it is enslaving. Don’t make my mistake. Only go to school if you can pay out of pocket or you are able to get grants and money sources you don’t have to pay back. Say a rich uncle or something like that. It is not a worth while investment.
I had did not have a good employment background to justify giving me loans. In turn I should have known I had no chance of succeed. With my ever presence of depression and anxiety and autism, I am UN-employable. No one in their right mind would hire me. Why would that change after I have a over priced degree? Again I did not do my job and reserch the topic. It is my fault and I am taking responsibility for it.
Personal Finance (Photo credit: 401K)
Judge Napolitano: “Taxation is Theft” (by TheLeakSource)
06/12/2012
FOX News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano on North Dakota’s proposal to remove property taxes.
http://LeakSource.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/LeakSourceNews
David Henderson - Liberty As Collateral Damage (by LibertyPen)
David Henderson explains how narrowly focused government goals erode the liberties of Americans. Cameo by Rahm Emanuel.
More news on liberty issues at http://www.LibertyPen.com
Source: C-Span
Buy It: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/AnEco
Escaping Obama’s Better War (Malou Innocent) (by catoinstitutevideo)
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/escaping-obamas-better-war
http://www.cato.org/people/malou-innocent
President Obama called Afghanistan “the good war.” Now some lawmakers want to exit as quickly as possible. Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, offers her thoughts on Afghanistan after eleven years, hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American lives over a country that has rarely ever been stable, secure or prosperous.
Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.
Steve Kaplan Discusses CEO Pay (by catoinstitutevideo)
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=8148
Steven Neil Kaplan, the Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, will look at executive compensation. He holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard College and a PhD in business economics from Harvard University. Kaplan conducts research on issues in private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance. He has published papers in a number of academic and business journals. He has testified to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee about his research. Kaplan is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics.
Agenda 21: How Will It Affect You? (by TheJohnBirchSociety)
A clean environment is important to us all. We have an obligation to maintain our resources and sustain our environment for future generations. Sustaining our environment has led us down the road to environmentalism. Then a strange thing happened. Environmentalism came to a fork in the road. While the rhetoric took one route, the agenda took another. Explore this topic and discover how Agenda 21 will affect you.
Is The USA Next? Gun Control in Canada (by LibertyInOurTime)
“States should work toward the introduction of appropriate national legislation, administrative regulations and licensing requirements that define conditions under which firearms can be acquired, used and traded by private persons. In particular, they should consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons.” — The United Nations’ Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms, August 19, 1999
Links to informative news articles, essays and videos exposing the “gun control” (i.e. civilian disarmament) agenda:
Civilian Disarmament: Prelude to Tyranny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t9nfq6zyzA
The Rise of the Robber State
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhO0QkVp5Qk
Innocents Betrayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAU9AJfttls
The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4
More Than A Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFpEbDNPeTE
Enemy Public Number One: The Government, The People and The Militia Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnUfykk731c
A Warning to the Gun Owners of the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC6aEx6xYFY
No Guns for Jews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjl2-ydZO9o
Are Guns To Blame?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjuLz_C0o54
2A Today for the USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsnGcJoNIXg
Operation Fast and Furious Exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONvmVcHlpP0
Does the National Rifle Association Support Gun Owners?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEVm6iyXaqM
More Guns, Less Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXTwAvE23ec
Guns versus Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2yhn80mR5k
Firearms and Personal Defense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGYttXa0d1k
The Why of Gun Ownership
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvR3Vt80b-s
Right to Bear Arms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsY76EWmbWg
Robert Williams and the 2nd Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXbNis6lAE
The UN: A Case for US Withdrawal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTyvwUThKgY
The UN’s War on Firearms
Taking advantage of Black Tuesday and the ongoing “war on terrorism,” the United Nations is intensifying its own campaign against civilian ownership of firearms.
http://tinyurl.com/7wx3xp9
Disarmament and Destruction
Under the guise of “peace and safety” the United Nations seeks to disarm entire populations. Never mind that disarmed populations invariably invite tyranny and genocide!
http://tinyurl.com/8yxzz
Dangerous Disarmament
The drive to deprive Americans of privately owned firearms is part of a larger plan to render the U.S. helpless before a Russian-Chinese axis or a nuclear-armed UN.
http://tinyurl.com/cvw45dd
With UN Support, Socialist Chavez Disarms Civilians in Venezuela
http://tinyurl.com/7f7h4ry
Deadly Disarmament: U.N. Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/6wtjp2t
UN-sponsored Civilian Disarmament in Brazil
http://tinyurl.com/86jvqqq
Bush Backs UN Global Disarmament Drive
http://tinyurl.com/7jqarwl
Gun Control Leads to Militarized Law Enforcement
http://tinyurl.com/6s8dl5t
Toward a Global Police State
http://tinyurl.com/7tu8mjp
Former UN Ambassador: Obama Will Target Gun Ownership in Second Term
http://tinyurl.com/77wmcuw
Obama’s Anti-gun Agenda Shelved - for Now
http://tinyurl.com/6u76s6r
Second Amendment Rights Once Again at Risk
http://tinyurl.com/85q82q3
Gun Controllers Don’t Want to Waste Tucson Tragedy
http://tinyurl.com/6mrcw47
The Shameful Manipulation of Murder: Gun Control and Tyranny
http://tinyurl.com/83yv8n4
Obama Planning Gun-control Legislation
http://tinyurl.com/6n57ddb
“Fast and Furious” Was Plot Against U.S. Gun Rights, NRA Chief Says
http://tinyurl.com/cnw972p
Gun Grab Revival
http://tinyurl.com/6uxzvsr
Gun Rights on Trial
http://tinyurl.com/d43pnvb
Second Amendment Solidified
http://tinyurl.com/7c8e6bk
Firearms and Freedom
http://tinyurl.com/7pnxh24
Defending the Home
http://tinyurl.com/87apqcm
Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down
http://tinyurl.com/77glhoz
The Darker Side of Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/857jkyz
I Am Alive, No Thanks to Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/77yd729
Shooting Down Faulty Arguments
Collectivists cling to their worn-out gun control clichés, even though each one can be shot full of holes.
http://tinyurl.com/6rlttl9
Moms’ Masquerade
The Million Mom March was a carefully crafted revolutionary mobilization led by a political veteran.
http://tinyurl.com/6ssnrak
Citizen Soldiers: The Militia
http://tinyurl.com/7tt6h3j
Bearing Arms: A Right … and a Duty?
http://tinyurl.com/7dx58tg
The American Rifleman in the Revolutionary War
http://tinyurl.com/cyxoqtz
No Compromise Against Gun Control: Aaron Zelman Interviewed
http://tinyurl.com/c8g5dea
The Impact of the Swiss Civilian Militia On Hitler’s War Plans
http://tinyurl.com/5lbjf4
National Security, Swiss-Style
http://tinyurl.com/2fnfm5
Guns, Crime, and the Swiss
http://tinyurl.com/crk6gl8
Citizens in Arms: The Swiss Experience
http://tinyurl.com/bq9z8oe
John Stossel - Bad Speech (by LibertyPen)
What is “bad speech”? And, who should define it? Naomi Schaefer Riley, Jason Riley.
More liberty news at: http://www.libertypen.com















