Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to appear before a Senate committee tomorrow morning to talk about Apple’s off-shore cash that’s now worth over $100 billion. Last week, Cook stated that his company believes the entire U.S. corporate tax system needs to be overhauled to encourage companies like Apple to bring earnings from overseas back to the U.S.
This afternoon Apple published its testimony before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, that contained a wish-list for the type of comprehensive corporate tax reform it thinks would be best for the U.S. tax system. Following the company’s ethos to believe in the simple, not the complex, Apple’s tax-wish list would dramatically simplify the U.S. corporate tax system.
In its testimony, Apple states that the comprehensive reform should have the following traits:
“Apple has always believed in the simple, not the complex. This is evident in the Company’s products and the way it conductsitself. In this spirit, Apple has recommended to the Obama Administration and several members of Congress – and suggests to the Subcommittee today – to pass legislation that dramatically simplifies the US corporate tax system. This comprehensive reform should:
• Be revenue neutral;
• Eliminate all corporate tax expenditures;
• Lower corporate income tax rates; and
• Implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital
back to the US.”
Apple says that its proposed changes to the U.S. tax system would actually increase the company’s taxes, but it would actually help the company run more efficiently, and with more flexibility and competitiveness.
Apple also reminded the committee in its testimony that the while the overall size of the domestic workforce has stagnated over the last ten years, Apple has increased the size of its domestic workforce more than five-fold. The company employs more than 50,000 people in the U.S. and estimates that it has created or supported about 600,000 jobs in the U.S. thanks to the App Store.
Source: Apple
