Currently the states may collect sales tax, but as the article pointed out Apple (and others) play games to shift profits to low tax countries, even where the bulk of sales is to the US. Frankly, I am not terribly interested in taxing Apple on sales ocurring in China or France, but we would be much better off if we could get our share.

Ethically I hate Apple, but the ultimate blame is on Congress who should be smart enough to design a tax system to fairly collect from all.

I’m looking at this from an European perspective. When Tim Cook and Eric Schmidt say that Apple and Google pay all the taxes required by the local jurisdictions I feel very uncomfortable about this. Whatever profit they potentially make by selling goods and services is always wiped out by IP and licensing payments to subsidiaries in countries with no taxation. Cook made it sound like that money will undergo double taxation, since they paid taxes on it in EU. Which is very far from the truth. The biggest problem is the difficulty with regulating transfer pricing “Firms are supposed to price these assets at market value. But what does that mean when it comes to, say, proprietary computer code?” Set up properly you can create potentially unlimited expenses in tax-paying countries and creating profits in tax heavens.

Also, whenever I see an American CEO including VAT payments in the amount of tax paid by the company, my blood boils.

Anyhow, I’m certainly happy I came across it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!

The problem is actually really interesting in that the senate is complaining that Apple isn’t paying corporate income tax on money that wasn’t made in the US.

And for profits, Apple is destroying Android.

Of course, only Samsung is making any money. Every other Android vendor is losing their shirts. But hey, as long as there is marketshare, all is well.