Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottSinger
Cook shouldn't have said Apple doesn't use tax havens in the Caribbean, he's a scammer.
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In his defence, Apple doesn't use tax havens in the Caribbean. They use(d) tax havens in the english channel.
The highest paid sales people have generally learnt the art of
technically telling the truth. Good journalists call them out for it.
Look at what he said and what he didn't say:
“We pay all the taxes we owe, every single dollar,” means "We pay every cent of tax that we are legally required to pay, and not one cent more"
“We don’t depend on tax gimmicks,” means "We use legitimate accounting techniques to move our profits to the best jurisdiction for our shareholders, these are not gimmicks"
“We don’t stash money on some Caribbean island.” means "we stash money anywhere in the world except, specifically: Caribbean islands."
A good journalist would've followed up with:
"Having compared the figures in Apple's last annual report with the effective corporate tax rate in California of [30%], why is apple's tax bill only $x, not $y. You said you're not using gimmicks to move money to caribbean islands and you're paying everything you're legally required to pay; but does Apple engage in international tax-minimisation accounting techniques, for example, "transfer pricing" or "related-company intellectual property licencing" to minimise its tax liabilities in highly taxed parts of the world? Yes or No, please, Mr Cook."
Quote:
Originally Posted by BayMoWe335
Apple is the best company in the world and has broken 0 laws. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Blame the laws, not Apple. They have shareholders.
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Man, I wouldn't go that far. "Best Company" by innovation? by profitibility? by market capitalization? by vision? by corproate ethics? ... they're good, but not that good.
Remember Apple's been caught up in scandals involving child labour, people committing suicide due to being overworked, putting undue pressure on people who've helped leak their products but haven't broken the law.... I don't think they've broken 0 laws. They might not've broken any big ones, and I also expect they haven't broken any in this instance - but apple themselves, if they haven't broken any laws it's because they haven't got caught.
... anyway, if you were being sarcastic or I misinterpreted, i'll STFU.
As for your comment "don't hate the player, hate the game" I'm with you 100%.
The guy told the truth in a misleading way, and obeyed the letter of the law but broke it in spirit.
There are many ways you can get to the top, I wouldn't go as far as to say "thats part of the job description", you wouldn't expect it of Elon Musk or Richard Branson... but that skill is certainly not an uncommon or even a generally undesirable one of top sales people.