Apple’s Taxes

No, no…the ‘ol “Double Irish” isn’t a drink, but a legal tax strategy (does multimillionaire board member Al Gore know this?) used by Apple’s Irish subsidiaries to avoid America’s onerous corporate income tax. Following Google’s similar strategy of loading up profits in Ireland only to shift them to tax haven Bermuda and Facebook’s creative use of stock options to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, you might be wondering why our fellow high-tech liberals who say taxes don’t matter try so hard to avoid them. Oh, and just when these loyal Democrat fundraisers will a) offer an apology to Mitt Romney for taking advantage of a lower ‘carried interest’ tax rate through his private equity firm, and b) campaign for a lower combined state and federal corporate income tax in the U.S., which is now highest in the developed world. Just asking…