新闻2. Apple的CEO Cook刚被新闻披露被要求参加美国国会的听证会,当场陈述公司的避税安排问题。在此之前,引起大家关注的,是拥有1500亿美元现金的Apple,为了一个600亿的分红和回购计划,还要发行170亿美元的债来筹钱。Cook在华盛顿邮报的采访中,毫不隐讳的抱怨美国的税收说“If you look at it today, to repatriate cash to the U.S., you need to pay 35 percent of that cash. And that is a very high number. We are not proposing that it be zero. I know many of our peers believe that. But I don’t view that. But I think it has to be reasonable” 。截止2012年9月29日,为了将美国境外赚得的未付税现金拿回美国分配给投资者,Apple需要向在利润表之外再向政府缴纳138亿美元的税收。显然的,经网易和Apple所宣布的利润,并不是股东可以分的到手的利润。
然而,公司总是想尽办法让利润表的利润更多些。现在全世界公司普遍采用的一招是,一口咬定所有的未付税利润均要永久在当地再投资,不用来分红。如网易 “the Company intends to reinvest all remaining undistributed earnings in PRC subsidiaries. Hence, no other withholding tax is expected to be incurred.”, 如Apple “The Company’s consolidated financial statements provide for any related tax liability on amounts that may be repatriated, aside from undistributed earnings of certain of the Company’s foreign subsidiaries that are intended to be indefinitely reinvested in operations outside the U.S. As of September 29, 2012, U.S. income taxes have not been provided on a cumulative total of $40.4 billion of such earnings. The amount of unrecognized deferred tax liability related to these temporary differences is estimated to be approximately $13.8 billion.”。