Tim Cook is about to get the tax audit from hell.
The embattled Apple CEO is slated to testify today in Washington about the tech giant’s notorious tax tricks, which got blasted anew yesterday by a congressional panel’s report.
Using an elaborate network of overseas subsidiaries, the California company avoided paying taxes on $44 billion in foreign income over the past four years, a US Senate subcommittee’s probe found.
None of the tactics appeared to violate any laws, according to the 40-page report.
Nevertheless, the web of tax shelters included a subsidiary in Ireland with no employees that recorded $30 billion in income between 2009 and 2012, and which hasn’t filed a tax return in the past five years.
“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax, offshore tax haven,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the subcommittee’s chairman. “Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance.”
Sparks could fly today, as Levin is expected to lead the grilling of Cook and two other top Apple execs.
Despite accusations of weaving an elaborate global network of tax shelters, Apple insisted in prepared testimony that it “has always believed in the simple, not the complex.”
As such, Apple said it will advocate a massive overhaul of the tax code that is “revenue neutral,” eliminating all corporate tax expenditures, lowering corporate tax rates and allowing US companies to repatriate income from overseas at “reasonable” tax rates.