Yesterday we opined [6]on the deteriorating situation surrounding the much anticipated government scramble to collect perfectly legal offshored capital, initially focusing on Apple (which having now entered the focus of the US government will be nothing but an "negative externality" free utility going forward or as long as Uncle Sam wishes it to be) but soon to turn to virtually every other multinational corporation with a hugh cash hoard and a low effective US tax rate. Today, it is Tim Cook's turn to explain why the firm is merely following clearly laid out rules and tax regulations as encoded by none other than the same people who are bringing you today's particular episode of "distract them with witchhunts."
Watch it live at the following C-Span link:
[7]
From the subcommittee [8]:
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing, “Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code - Part 2 (Apple Inc.)” on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts. A witness list will be available Friday, May 17, 2013.
The full witness list:
PANEL 1
- J. RICHARD HARVEY, Villanova University School of Law
- STEPHEN E. SHAY, Harvard Law School
PANEL 2
- TIMOTHY D. COOK, Chief Executive Officer, Apple
- PETER OPPENHEIMER , Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Apple
- PHILLIP A. BULLOCK ,Head of Tax Operations, Apple
PANEL 3
- MARK J. MAZUR, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- SAMUEL M. MARUCA, Director, Transfer Pricing Operations, Large Business & International (LB&I) Division, Internal Revenue Service
Full Tim Cook testimony [9]: