Business

Cook beats back senators

Apple CEO Tim Cook to Congress: Kiss this, we’re part Irish.

The studious, levelheaded tech boss testified before sometimes less-than-steady lawmakers yesterday after being invited to explain why Apple avoided some $9 billion in taxes on its overseas profits.

Cook countered that it was the crazy, Byzantine US tax code — set up by Congress — and not Apple that is to blame.

“We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar,” Cook testified at the start of his appearance for nearly two hours before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“We not only comply with the laws, we comply with the spirit of the law,” Cook added.

The CEO also reminded lawmakers that Apple is one of the largest US taxpayers — paying Uncle Sam more than $6 billion last year — and he cautioned Congress that Apple’s moves are not accounting gimmicks or schemes, as some charged.

Cook said he was in favor of changing tax laws to make them simpler and more fair — even if it means his Cupertino, Calif., maker of iPhones and iPads pays more tax.

A report by the committee this week found Apple had avoided paying taxes on $44 billion in profits over the last four years.

The cash is sitting in American banks abroad, mainly in Ireland, where its chief foreign unit is based.

Apple has a web of offshore entities. Its Ireland-based units, thanks to local laws, are in a tax limbo — officially not being based, or taxed, in any country.

“Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), head of the committee, said. “It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Cook why Apple even has a corporation in Ireland, indicating it is just for tax cover. “We’ve built up a significant skill base there,” Cook said.

McCain did lighten the sometimes-testy hearing with a personal question.

“What I really wanted to ask is why the hell I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone all the time and why you don’t fix that?” the septuagenarian senator said.

Cook received some tax-question relief from a likely ally, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

“Congress should be on trial,” the anti-tax Rand said.