Apple CEO Tim Cook to Senate: We Pay All The Taxes We Owe
"Every single dollar," he tells a Senate subcommittee
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cookstrongly defended the company's tax practices Tuesday at a Senate hearing highlighting the technology giant's use of Irish subsidiaries to shelter billions of dollars in income from U.S. taxes.
"We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar," Cook told the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
"We not only comply with the laws but we comply with the spirit of the laws," he said. "We don't depend on tax gimmicks."
Cook said the tax code "has not kept up with the digital age" and restricts the free movement of capital in comparison to the codes of other countries. He called for a "dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code," including lower tax rates and a "reasonable tax on foreign earnings."
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Reasonable tax on foreign earnings is the same as a reasonable tax on domestic earnings: a rate of 0%. #cookstrong
"Who the hell do you think I am? Tim Geithner?!" the Apple chief should have said but sadly did not...