Should the Govt remove subsidies to Apple?

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

mjperry.blogspot.com/

Will Apple's Profits Be Investigated Next?

Q1 2011 ExxonMobil Apple
Revenue $114.0B $24.7B
Earnings Before Tax $18.94B $7.96B
Income Taxes $8.0B $1.9B
Net Profit $10.65B $5.98B
Effective Tax Rate 42.20% 24.22%
Profit Margin 9.30% 24.27%
Profit/Employee $127,392 $128,470

I wouldn't want to give Obama or Congress any ideas, but in the first quarter of 2011, Apple was more profitable than ExxonMobil based on both having a higher profit margin (24.27% vs. 9.30% for Exxon) and higher profits per employee ($128,470 vs. $127,392 for Exxon). In addition, Apple's effective income tax rate was only 24.22% compared to Exxon's 42.2% rate, so it must be getting some very generous tax breaks and subsidies?

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Well? Do you have anything to offer other than some popcorn. Surely Apple is earning obscene profits and gouging the public...no?

ETA: Apple is not even paying it's fair share of taxes....

[Deleted]

I think taxes should be raised for all businesses.

[ugonow]

I believe the 42 percent rate you quote is on worldwide profits.We have no control over other countries taxes.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I think taxes should be raised for all businesses.


People who live in Connecticut suck also.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I believe the 42 percent rate you quote is on worldwide profits.We have no control over other countries taxes.


Apple is a global company. Taxes paid are taxes paid.

[ugonow]

The rate paid to the US is a lot lower.www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/05/tax_man.html

[ty]

YES, and even though I like Apple products, I wouldn't buy their stocks. When Steve Jobs goes (dies) the company is going to tank real quick.

When Jobs left the company and this other man took over, Apple stocks went down to less than a dollar. Steve came back with the iMac and began bringing Apple Inc back in the light once again .

When it comes to subsidized programs for the rich and wealthy people and companies. They all need to be stopped. Bon Jovi owns 100's of acres of land and only pays 200 a year in taxes while his neighbor owns less than 2 acres of land and is paying more than 16k in taxes. WTF! Talk about unbalanced and unfairness. This is just WRONG!

If the rich get subsidies, then they should be available to everyone, not just the rich and wealthy people that are bottom feeders feeding off the poor working class people.

[ed1066]

Yeah...but...but...Apple products are cool and hip and, you know, progressive! Even though they are made in China by child/slave labor and create massive amounts of toxic waste, carbon and contribute to landfills...

[ugonow]

They will survive without their dry well subsidy.Paul Ryan,and other republicans even agreed that they should be cut until they walked it back to toe party lines. Everything on the table doesn't just mean medicare and medicaid.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Exxon also pays state and local taxes. Apple is also global.
None of what is in your link is relevant to anything.
You can post a similar article about any US or global corporation.
An article that notes normal and regular business expenses are loopholes or subsidies is laughable at best.

[cme1201]

May 18, 2011 15:11:11 GMT -5 ugonow said:

They will survive without their dry well subsidy.Paul Ryan,and other republicans even agreed that they should be cut until they walked it back to toe party lines. Everything on the table doesn't just mean medicare and medicaid.

this means oil company bad, electronic company good.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

When it comes to subsidized programs for the rich and wealthy people and companies. They all need to be stopped. Bon Jovi owns 100's of acres of land and only pays 200 a year in taxes while his neighbor owns less than 2 acres of land and is paying more than 16k in taxes. WTF! Talk about unbalanced and unfairness. This is just WRONG!

You are referring to local subsidies. These are fairly common in NYC. Real estate subsidies that you note have allowed developers to build in places like NYC and hire 1000s of construction workers, and grow the local economy. I'm not saying this is right...but it is what it is. Local politicians are known for giving away the store. Pretty common in NYC.

[ugonow]

Bon Jovi owns 100's of acres of land and only pays 200 a year in taxes while his neighbor owns less than 2 acres of land and is paying more than 16k in taxes. WTF!

Read up on how many in congress collect farm subsidies,including some tea party favorites. But they are off the table. Go figure. Kinda like Grassleys and co. ethonal subsidies

[ugonow]

An article that notes normal and regular business expenses are loopholes or subsidies is laughable at best.

The dry well deal sure smells like a subsidy.If it isn't it is about as close to one as you can get.

[ugonow]

Why are republicans soft on these farm,ethonal and oil subsidies/ tax incentives? Reagan did it in his TERFA. A subsidy does not lower the price,it shifts the burden to tax payers.

[bubblyandblue]

I don't think any corporation pays taxes. All they do is collect taxes from their consumers and pass it to the tax authorities You would be a bit crazy to think a company does not include taxes as part of the final price they charge for services or products. Along the same line, when you or an illegal alien pays rent or purchases products, they are simply paying taxes for someone else or for a corporation.

[marshabar1]

Love Apple products but good heavens, Apple gets subsidies to underpay and overwork Chinese people.

■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

■ Crowded workers’ dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a “confession letter” after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: “It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again.”

■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to “treasure their lives”.

Foxconn produced its first iPad at Chengdu last November and expects to produce 100m a year by 2013. Last year Apple sold more than 15m iPads worldwide and has already sold close to five million this year.

[a href="http://publicintelligence.net/apples-chinese-workers-forced-to-sign-anti-suicide-pledge/"]http://publicintelligence.net/apples-chinese-workers-forced-to-sign-anti-suicide-pledge/[/a]

[Deleted]

May 18, 2011 15:31:34 GMT -5 @bubblyandblue said:

I don't think any corporation pays taxes. All they do is collect taxes from their consumers and pass it to the tax authorities

In that case, consumers don't pay any taxes because they just collect money from their employers, pass it on to the corporations who pass it on to the tax authorities. So in reality corporations pay all of the taxes.

[ugonow]

Companies pay our personal income tax.When our income tax goes up,to keep pace,employers give raises or people leave.

[bubblyandblue]

ArchietheDragon, Consumers don't just collect money from their employers, they trade their labor or expertise for value in the form of currency. Money is a store of value, so, for instance, if I pick cotton for a living (as part of a wealth creating activity) and I want to buy something, I can use the dollars that were given to me as trade for my labor - to buy something. I will not get into one of your false-logic arguments.

[ty]

May 18, 2011 15:14:00 GMT -5 cme1201 said:

May 18, 2011 15:11:11 GMT -5 ugonow said:

They will survive without their dry well subsidy.Paul Ryan,and other republicans even agreed that they should be cut until they walked it back to toe party lines. Everything on the table doesn't just mean medicare and medicaid.

this means oil company bad, electronic company good.[/quote]

No, it just means the rest of the people are screwed once again.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2011 15:54:43 GMT -5 @bubblyandblue said:

ArchietheDragon, Consumers don't just collect money from their employers, they trade their labor or expertise for value in the form of currency. Money is a store of value, so, for instance, if I pick cotton for a living (as part of a wealth creating activity) and I want to buy something, I can use the dollars that were given to me as trade for my labor - to buy something. I will not get into one of your false-logic arguments.

But consumers don't trade money to corporations for value?

[bubblyandblue]

Cosumers buy product from corporations, businesses etc. using currency. They don't just hand cash over for nothing unless, they are being defrauded. I buy an apple from someone for a dollar - the apple has a value of a dollar for me and the person who sold the apple thinks the apple he has is worth the dollar -
Is you messin' wit me dragon?

[Deleted]

May 18, 2011 16:15:12 GMT -5 @bubblyandblue said:

Cosumers buy product from corporations, businesses etc. using currency. They don't just hand cash over for nothing unless, they are being defrauded. I buy an apple from someone for a dollar - the apple has a value of a dollar for me and the person who sold the apple thinks the apple he has is worth the dollar -
Is you messin' wit me dragon?

I agree.

[ugonow]

But consumers pay for companies employees wages and benefits. Since these only drive up the cost of goods and services we need to eliminate or cut them.

[cme1201]

May 18, 2011 17:09:04 GMT -5 ugonow said:

But consumers pay for companies employees wages and benefits. Since these only drive up the cost of goods and services we need to eliminate or cut them.

Are you saying we need to eliminate consumers so corporations can't pay employee's who are consumers of there products.

[bubblyandblue]

No corporate taxes for any company employing labor and capital to produce actual products (wealth). Also, no taxes on income made in a wealth producing activity. Tax the crap out of speculation, passive income and property values (not improvements) - like derivatives trading (unless linked to actual product), property flipping and other money games that do not contribute to the common wealth. Yea, I know, I am crazy. Look at where all the money is these days - siphoned off to those who have created no wealth (employed labor and capital), like the "financial services companies" (they did not contribute a thing to the wealth creation in this country - they destroyed it and mis-allocated it criminally)
Of course consumers pay for the wages of employees - example: Farmer plows, sows and raises tomatoes and gets them to market - you pay for that with the currency you earned with your labor. If, however, you do nothing productive but, just skim the rewards of someone else's labor then you should be taxed - for instance; you buy a shack on land in an area you know will develop in the near future - you sit around doing nothing while others put-in improvements, sewers etc --- this activity, by others, raises the value of your shack....so you sell at a huge profit based on wealth the work of others created---- that is parasitic speculation and should be taxed to hell and, delivered to the people who actually created the wealth.

[bubblyandblue]

No corporate taxes for any company employing labor and capital to produce actual products (wealth). Also, no taxes on income made in a wealth producing activity. Tax the crap out of speculation, passive income and property values (not improvements) - like derivatives trading (unless linked to actual product), property flipping and other money games that do not contribute to the common wealth. Yea, I know, I am crazy. Look at where all the money is these days - siphoned off to those who have created no wealth (employed labor and capital), like the "financial services companies" (they did not contribute a thing to the wealth creation in this country - they destroyed it and mis-allocated it criminally)
Of course consumers pay for the wages of employees - example: Farmer plows, sows and raises tomatoes and gets them to market - you pay for that with the currency you earned with your labor. If, however, you do nothing productive but, just skim the rewards of someone else's labor then you should be taxed - for instance; you buy a shack on land in an area you know will develop in the near future - you sit around doing nothing while others put-in improvements, sewers etc --- this activity, by others, raises the value of your shack....so you sell at a huge profit based on wealth the work of others created---- that is parasitic speculation and should be taxed to hell and, delivered to the people who actually created the wealth.