White House Unmoved By Apple’s Offshore Cash Problem

[ProSense]

White House Unmoved By Apple’s Offshore Cash Problem

Carl Franzen

The White House isn’t moved by Apple’s argument on Monday that U.S. corporate taxes are too high for the company to consider moving any of the staggering $64 billion in cash it has in offshore accounts back into the U.S.

A White House official told TPM that the Obama Administration specifically chose not to propose a repatriation holiday — a temporary tax break on overseas cash brought back into the U.S., which Apple and other tech companies have sought for years.

Instead, the official told TPM that the White House in late February put forth “a comprehensive corporate tax reform plan that simplifies the code, levels the playing field for American businesses and encourages investment here at home.”

In a paradigm shift, Apple on Monday announced that it would be spending a $45 billion domestic chunk of its nearly $100 billion in total cash reserves — the largest such stockpile in the United States — on paying investors dividends and buying back shares.

But the company also candidly stated it would refrain from repatriating any of its reported $64 billion in overseas cash into the United States any time soon due to what Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer deemed “significant disincentives.”

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http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/white-house-unmoved-by-apples-offshore-cash-problem.php?ref=fpa

[Incitatus]

1. Why do these companies want to bring cash back to the US?

Would it be used to pay bonuses? I doubt the want to build manufacturing plants.

[JHB]

6. That's what companies did the last time there was a tax holiday on repatriation...

Bonuses, dividends, stock buys to prop up their share price (conveniently aiding executives in meeting conditions for their bonuses).

More gravy for those already bathing in it.

[Amonester]

2. But, hey, Chinese workers won't have any slack either...

If I believed in a Hell, that's where I'd wish these high-tech capitalist pigs to end into.

[MADem]

3. I heard on the news they are paying a stock dividend--first one, I guess Jobs didn't like 'em or

something...??? Is that how they are getting some of the cash back home?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/19/bloomberg_articlesM14TVT0YHQ0Z01-M15L9.DTL

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. will pay its first dividend in 17 years and buy back $10 billion in stock, heeding investors who urged it to return part of the $97.6 billion in cash amassed by robust demand for iPhones and iPads.

Shareholders will receive a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share starting in the period beginning July 1, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement. The buybacks will begin in the fiscal year starting Sept. 30 and happen over three years, the company said.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is showing more willingness than co-founder Steve Jobs to channel part of cash and investments directly to investors. The move will cost $45 billion over three years, Cook said, and may broaden Apple's shareholding base by attracting fund managers who only hold dividend-paying companies.

"It was high time to do this," said David Rolfe, chief investment officer of Wedgewood Partners Inc., which holds Apple shares.

[prairierose]

4. Another unpatriotic corporation that makes profits here but...

doesn't think they should have to pay any taxes to help pay for the society that allows them to make all of those profits.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. They make a huge chunk of their fortune from the U.S.

Yet don't want to pay any taxes on it. That - ought to be a crime, frankly.