Apple boss expects to repatriate billions to the US next year | The Guardian |
Apple boss Tim Cook expects the iPhone maker to repatriate huge offshore profits to America next year, paying billions of dollars in deferred taxes to the US Treasury.
In an interview with RTE radio, he gave a summary of the company’s 2014 tax affairs, saying: “We paid $400m [in tax] to Ireland, we paid $400m to the US. And we provisioned several billion for the US for payment as soon as we repatriated.
The revelation that Apple plans to repatriate some of its offshore profits and pay its huge US tax bills next year comes as a surprise given Cook’s previous refusal to countenance such a move.
Like many large US multinationals, Apple has for decades been pooling its non-US profits outside of America. Under loopholes in the tax laws, corporations can defer US taxes continually so long as income is not repatriated to America.
In July, Apple told investors its cash pile held offshore had reached $214.8bn (£162.2bn). This is the largest of any US company.
Cook’s surprise U-turn on repatriating foreign profits comes days after Apple was accused by competition regulators at the European commission of receiving state aid from Ireland.
Fact-Checking Apple’s Claims on E.U. Tax Ruling | NY Times |
SAN FRANCISCO — Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, issued a defiant letter to his European customers on Tuesday after the region’s antitrust enforcer ordered Ireland to collect 13 billion euros, or about $14.5 billion, in back taxes from the company.
By turns outraged and scolding, Mr. Cook pushed back on the findings by Europe’s competition commission, which said that Apple had made inappropriate low-tax deals with the Irish government that let the technology company pay almost nothing on its European business in some years.
Instead, Mr. Cook framed Apple’s operations in Ireland as an investment in the people there, declared that Apple has a history as a good corporate tax citizen, and added that the European Commission’s decision will hurt investment and business growth in Europe.
We examined some of the points Mr. Cook made in the letter, consulting with five tax experts to fact-check the chief executive’s statements. While Mr. Cook was technically truthful, he omitted some context and shifted the spotlight from the thrust of the European Commission’s case: whether Apple took advantage of loopholes in Irish tax laws.
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Tim Cook's rather intemperate statement (Credit: James S. Henry on twitter)
My previous diary …
○ A Breaking Corporate Alliance: Brexit, TTIP and $15bn Tax Fee to Apple