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Comment by davidiach | Hacker News Reader

What people understand from that article:

- Apple makes money in the US and because of various tax loopholes, does not pay corporate taxes for those revenues

What happens in reality:

- Apple makes money in many different countries and pays corporate taxes in each of them (including the US), but if AFTER paying taxes (for example in an European country) they want to bring back some of that already taxed money to the US, they have to pay an additional ~40% in taxes.

Think of it this way, you as an employee go to work for one year in a European country. There you pay all your taxes and after that year you want to return to the US, but now the US decides you need to also pay income taxes in the US for your salary in Belgium.

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> if AFTER paying taxes (for example in an European country) they want to bring back some of that already taxed money to the US, they have to pay an additional ~40% in taxes.

Except this isn't what is happening. In Europe at least they practice the double Irish [0]. So effectively the stash we're talking about haven't been taxed yet.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

> Think of it this way, you as an employee go to work for one year in a European country. There you pay all your taxes and after that year you want to return to the US, but now the US decides you need to also pay income taxes in the US for your salary in Belgium.

Actually, the US does tax its citizens income whereever they are on the planet (past a certain threshold earned): http://www.expatinfodesk.com/expat-guide/nationality-specifi...

Wait a second, that is absolutely wrong. It is not the case that Apple has paid a tax on the money it holds abroad. In many cases, with complicated tax arrangements like the double Irish, it has avoided taxes in other countries as well. So a big chunk of this money is effectively untaxed.

They don't have to pay an additional 40%,they have to pay the difference until 40%.

And please, when Apple (or Google) post losses in Spain and they take fiscal benefits because of this, it is not a totally correct claim the one about Apple and others paying taxes on Europe

Actually Apple does utilize loopholes in EU. For example[0]

[0]: http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/september/european-c...

Every tax can be fair or unfair, it depends of who is paying. We tend to think that the taxes we pay (or dream of paying some day) are unfair. But Apple would not be Apple if it wasn't an US company. The right time to complain about taxes is before profiting from the system, not after.

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