Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
TURKISH TURF WARS
Russian and Turkish jets are
clashing along the Syrian border
Flying the unfriendly skies. (AP/Usame Ari (Cihan News Agency))
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The US and its allies are already uneasy about Russia’s
air strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s enemies in Syria—
especially since Moscow has targeted groups supported
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
by the US-led coalition. Now it appears that the Russian
planes conducting those strikes have been taking
detours into Turkish air space—a sign that Moscow is
not willing to abide by no- y zone rules.
Turkey says two of its F-16 ghter jets intercepted a Russian war
plane on Turkey’s side of the Syrian border on Saturday (Oct. 3),
and that on Sunday (Oct. 4), two of its jets were “harassed” by an
unidenti ed MiG-29 plane for more than ve minutes while ying
near the Syrian border. NATO con rmed these incidents but said
the unidenti ed plane involved in Sunday’s incident was a Russian
SU-30 or SU-24, rather than a MIG
The Turkish military also said that on Monday (Oct. 5), an
unidenti ed plane locked its radar on up to eight Turkish jets and
that missile systems inside Syria were “locked on” to Turkish
planes for several minutes, as well.
Turkey and Russia are on opposing sides of the Syrian con ict:
Turkey wants Assad ousted, and Russia wants to prop him up. US
state secretary John Kerry said he is “greatly concerned” about the
1 at avoiding US
recent Russian incursion into Turkish air space. According to an
anonymous NATO of cial quoted by the Wall Street Journal: “It was
a political statement from the Russians that said, ‘We will y
anywhere we want.’”
http://qz.com/518203
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
OFFSHORE CASH
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US
taxes
Wave goodbye to Apple's tax payments. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
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US multinationals in the Fortune 500 doubled the assets
WRITTEN BY
they hold in foreign subsidiaries between 2008 and 2014,
taking advantage of loopholes in US and foreign laws to
keep $2.1 trillion out of sight of tax authorities, a new
Tim Fernholz
analysis shows.
@timfernholz
Here are the top 30 companies that disclose assets
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3/6
10/8/2015
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
OBSESSION
booked offshore, according to the Center for Tax
Justice’s analysis of SEC lings. Apple leads the pack
with $70 billion more held offshore in 2014 than in
Borders
2 hours ago
2013, when a Senate investigation found the company
pushed the limits of US and Irish law to keep its
earnings taxed at 2% or less.
The top 30 US companies exploiting global tax havens
Assets held offshore
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
Goldman Sachs
25
Bristol-Myers Squibb
24
Intel
23
Wal-Mart Stores
23
Abbott Laboratories
23
AbbVie Inc
23
Data: CTJ
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These companies tend to share common traits—technology and
pharmaceutical companies can easily move intellectual property
abroad, taking advantage of lax enforcement of transfer-pricing
rules to move even US earnings overseas. Large industrial and
energy rms often leverage capital-investment accounting rules to
funnel more money abroad, and nancial services companies
routinely book their deals through low-tax jurisdictions.
At least 72% percent of the Fortune 500 operate subsidiaries in taxhaven jurisdictions—one in four of which are in the Cayman
Islands—costing the government between $26 billion and $90
billion a year. The 57 Fortune 500 companies that disclose
estimates of what their tax liability would be if they did not book
their pro ts offshore would owe $184.4 billion in outstanding
federal taxes.
Avoiding a tax bill of that size require a web of shell companies.
PepsiCo, for example, operates 132 subsidiaries in offshore tax
havens—one of their structures was a nalist last year in our
inaugural tax-avoidance power ranking. Nike, which holds $8.3
billion offshore, has 52 subsidiaries, including some named after its
shoe lines.
Apple is still No. 1 at avoiding US taxes Quartz
While the Obama administration has proposed closing loopholes
that allow companies to shift pro ts and hide assets from the IRS,
corporate lobbyists have thus far been able to keep them from
becoming law.
http://qz.com/518327
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