Andy Wong
Has Apple been gaming the tax system? A bipartisan Senate panel filed a report Monday claiming the company avoided paying U.S. taxes on $44 billion in offshore, taxable income between 2009 and 2012. The report claims Apple has used offshore subsidiaries to cut some of its tax rates to .05 percent, one of which reportedly netted $30 billion from 2009 to 2012 but paid no income taxes to the U.S. or any other government. Another affiliate reportedly received $74 billion in sales income for four years but paid taxes “on only a tiny fraction of that income,” the report reads. Apple said it paid $6 billion in federal corporate income taxes during its 2012 fiscal year and expects to pay $7 billion in 2013, which would make it “likely the largest corporate income tax payer in the U.S.” CEO Tim Cook will testify in tomorrow’s hearing.