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Post by mace on May 21, 2013 23:25:36 GMT -8
email to John McCain As a life long fiscal conservative and registered Republican, I was embarrassed by your questioning of Tim Cook (Apple CEO), and your defense of Senator Levine. The problem isn't Apple's pursuit of tax avoidance (which the Supreme Court has affirmed is every citizen's right, if not duty), but the archaic, complex, bloated tax code, written by a politically motivated Congress without regard to its impact on US competitiveness abroad, and how that negatively impacts the American worker. We operate in a market that is no longer defined by nation-state borders. Goods produced in China, Indonesia or Europe today, are on US store shelves tomorrow. US manufacturers are not competing with other US manufacturers, but with manufacturers on the other side of the world. Most importantly, they are also competing against foreign government tax policy that encourages work, savings and export manufacturing. The tone of yours and Senator Levine's questioning of Apple executives was, at best, pure grandstanding. At its worst it reflected a complete lack of understanding of the world we live in today. Instead of defending Senator Levine, I suggest you apologize to Senator Paul for suggesting that his comments were out of line. Blunt though they were they were spot on. Good job. Great insights. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 2:01:14 GMT -8
Hah! It's Bullock btw. Don't worry, took me a few tries to get it right. He moved from Symantec as Chief Accounting Officer last year. A bit nervous-sounding but he did just fine as the most technically inclined tax authority rep for Apple. And hey, you don't get called before a couple of Angry Birds Senators too often. Which was a pleasant surprise, because only TWO of them had any real issue with Apple far as I could tell. Yeah, just a little conflation with the the cast of characters to stay as far away from using Bollocks. I presume his past doesn't include a stint with the Sex Pistols? |
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platon
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"All we can know is that we know nothing. And that's the height of human wisdom.? Tolstoy
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Post by platon on May 22, 2013 3:08:52 GMT -8
Also also, Apple's tax rate is 26%. So it's well equipped to handle even the worst-case tax-hit-after-the-fact, considering that there's very little likelihood of an EPS restatement due to Apple's more conservative accounting. Apple has already booked the maximum tax consequence against overseas profits. They just haven't mailed the check. Frankly, I saw a theme within the political grandstanding of McCain and Levin today, and that was a 15% corporate tax rate, with a consumption tax making up the balance. That would be a step in the right direction, but would really be a disaster, as it would leave the prospect of increasing the rate later. The disaster would come from the consumption tax. If Congress did increase the corporate tax rate in the future they sure as hell would not lower the consumption tax. The cure to all this tax avoidance angst is to abolish all taxes on production, and implement a pure consumption tax. That combination would achieve what all the tax avoidance strategies are designed to do, plus tax the sales of foreign produced goods that are not taxed in their country of origin (think Korea).. +1 Gregg and following the plan of the Fair Tax a Constitutional Amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment. Otherwise politicians would do what politicians do. A consumption tax and the income tax would give them 2 paths to take what they have decided is theirs. (See Levin's comments on the subject) |
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Since84
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To infinity and beyond!
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Post by Since84 on May 22, 2013 3:56:15 GMT -8
Apple store is down. Maintenance or new Levin bobble head doll? LOL ;D |
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