Do they really keep it as actual cash? Aren't they investing it somewhere? I thi...

wmil · on May 5, 2015

It's in "marketable securities" so not exactly cash but close. The other issue is that much of it is overseas money, so Apple will take at 35% tax hit if they repatriate it.

putlake · on May 5, 2015

Repatriation is somewhat of a red herring. Money is fungible. Even if it is technically (on the books) "overseas", it can be (and usually is) invested in U.S. markets.

danieltillett · on May 5, 2015

Yes they are waiting for their employees (congress) to pass another "one time" tax break that will let them repatriate all that cash tax free.

MCRed · on May 5, 2015

It should be tax free. The money was made overseas from products made overseas and sold to overseas customers by overseas entities.

Taxing money coming into a country is really bad economics and amounts to just pure greed.

Countries should want money coming into their markets. Not punishing it.

danieltillett · on May 6, 2015

Remember every dollar not paid by Apple and the like is an extra dollar that some other poor US tax payer has to pay. Given that everyone wants the services that taxes pay for (if not move to Somalia) then the taxes should be raised in a way that causes the least amount of distortion to the economy. Letting some companies pay no tax and others 36% is highly distortionary.

I would also be more convinced of the idea of not taxing the money coming in to the USA if it had actually been taxed in the countries where the profits had been made - let me introduce you to the Double Irish Arrangement [1].

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

tacticus · on May 6, 2015

then payments from child companies to parent companies that end up as profit should be taxed in those other countries.