MAY 23- Apple’s chief executive officer Tim Cook (CEO) has disputed assertions by a Senate panel that the company avoids billions of dollars in US taxes by shifting profits to foreign affiliates. Cook (photo) testified at a hearing on Tuesday by the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which released a damning report on Monday on Apple’s tax practices.
“We pay all the taxes we owe-every single dollar,” Cook said. “We don’t depend on tax gimmicks.”
Cook took a defensive tone with his opening statement. He punched out words when stressing the 600,000 jobs that the company supports and noting that Apple is the nation’s largest corporate taxpayer. Cook said that he advocates an overhaul of the US tax code.
The Senate probe found that the world’s most valuable company employs a group of affiliate companies located in Ireland to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes. Apple is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes, according to the report.
While Apple claims to be the biggest US corporate taxpayer, it is also “among America’s largest tax avoiders”, said Senator John McCain, the panel’s senior Republican. Ireland said that it is not to be blamed for Apple’s low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company.
