Elizabeth Warren: Apple’s Tax-Shirking Schemes Show Congress Must Reform US Code
(COMMON DREAMS) Nadia Prupis, September 9, 2016 — The ongoing Apple tax scandal in Europe is the perfect opportunity to reform the U.S. tax code, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday.
Multinationals and their lobbyists on Capitol Hill are pushing U.S. Congress to give them favorable deals even as the U.S. Department of the Treasury finalizes reporting requirements for American corporations with offices in foreign countries that could help expose their “jaw-dropping variety of tax-dodging schemes,” Warren wrote.
“But instead of bailing out the tax dodgers under the guise of tax reform, Congress should seize this moment to take three crucial steps to repair our broken corporate tax code.”
Last week, the European Commission slapped Apple with a $14 billion tax bill in a decision that came almost a year after it was revealed that the company had stockpiled $181 billion in profits in offshore funds in Ireland, more than any other American company. The commission found that Ireland’s levy on Apple was so lenient that it amounted to illegal state aid.
The decision was met with outrage—but not at Apple. Many lawmakers and business groups jumped to the company’s defense, claiming the European Union had overstepped its bounds and had unfairly punished Apple based on a loose interpretation of tax law. And the Irish government is supporting Apple’s appeal of the fine, which the country’s Parliament also strongly backs.