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El Reg reports
Steve Wozniak has spoken out against Apple's tax affairs, saying all companies ought to pay 50 per cent in taxes.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live he said: "I don't like the idea that Apple might be unfair--not paying taxes the way I do as a person.
"I do a lot of work, I do a lot of travel and I pay over 50 per cent of anything I make in taxes and I believe that's part of life and you should do it."
Asked if Apple should pay that amount, he replied: "Every company in the world should."
According to Woz, money was never a factor when he started the biz with Steve Jobs 40 years ago. He added: "Steve Jobs started Apple Computers for money, that was his big thing and that was extremely important and critical and good."
Europe is currently scrutinising Ireland's tax arrangements with Apple over an alleged sweetheart deal with the company. Some have speculated the probe could lead to Apple paying $8bn in back taxes, even though the case is against the Irish government.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Tuesday April 26 2016, @04:04AM
It's not merely not reaping the edges and corners. It's not going over entire vineyard or fields a second time to pick up what was dropped the first round.
http://biblehub.com/leviticus/19-9.htm [biblehub.com]
http://biblehub.com/leviticus/19-10.htm [biblehub.com]
Whatever drops is to be left for the needy and strangers So if you look at the story of Ruth a widow (and King David's grandmother) at one point she was one of those gathering after the main harvesters.
http://biblehub.com/ruth/2-23.htm [biblehub.com]
BTW there's also the Year of Jubilee, where it's like a big reset. Every 50 years all the farmland (not houses in city/town) reverts back to the original owners, Israelite "slaves"/servants go free. So in _theory_ it would have been harder for a family to gain and maintain a monopoly over production over many generations ( https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+25&version=ESV [biblegateway.com] ).
Anyway, to me the main thing about this corporate tax thing is the dishonesty. It's dishonest for a corporation to claim publicly and officially (via annual reports etc) in the USA that they made billions of profit and turn around and tell the US Tax Dept they didn't make any of it, it's all made by some company in Ireland. It's dishonest for a corporation to go "I've this billions of dollars, I want to use it as collateral for a loan", or "I want to buy a lot of expensive stuff with _my_ billions" and then tell the US tax dept, "those billions of dollars aren't mine".
Should I be able to declare officially I made $$$$$, use it to buy/borrow stuff and then say I don't have to pay taxes on the $$$$$ because I didn't actually make the $$$$$? Is allowing or even encouraging this sort of dishonesty good in the long run?
Yes, preventing this sort of thing could make Apple move more to Ireland, and declare their billions there. But if they did that then they won't benefit as much from various "nice stuff" in the USA, that they haven't been paying their fair share for.