Wednesday, May 22, 2013

My Take on Apple

  Apple, then. Did I hear correctly that they dodged paying $7.7 billion, that, in spite of that, they are the largest corporate tax payer in America, and that they moved money overseas to steer clear of the taxes.
   Oh, and that they owe it to their shareholders to avoid the taxes, thus returning to the investors all the money possible. And, maybe one more thing: their tax rate was 30.5 percent, or something like that.
   I'm grateful to them for the taxes they did pay. Being the largest corporate taxpayer in America should bring them honor. Bless them, too, as Rand Paul would have us do, for giving so many people jobs. Rand Paul is also correct in saying the government set up the tax code, and, it should be responsible for what has happened.
   But, I stop a little shy of letting Apple go its merry way. Yes, they have the right to take every advantage the tax code offers, but should they -- even in the name of doing what is best for the shareholders?
   I would just hope they would look at their bottom line, weigh whether they could keep more of the money inside the U.S. where it could be taxed, and decide that they wanted to do that. If being organized with shareholders means you cannot make decisions like that, well, that isn't right. These companies have power to give to charities, to donate to communities. Why should this be any different.
   And, there is the question of whether taking the money overseas to dodge Uncle Sam is ethical. I'm not sure it should be considered unethical, but it is. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion.
   And certainly that you have shareholders should not mean you cannot be ethical.

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