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Summers is right, of course releasing M3 would be a no-brainer. Can we ever reconcile accounting and economics? With its excess cash reserves, if Apple paid ta

Summers is right, of course releasing M3 would be a no-brainer. Can we ever reconcile accounting and economics? With its excess cash reserves, if Apple paid tax, absolutely nothing about its business would change. The more profound perspective is, who is really the tax collector then? Who is playing that economic role? Obviously these giant tax-evading companies. They are accumulating huge stockpiles of cash they cannot spend, a long-running surplus, they can't even effectively give it back to shareholders, and it's not because of tax policy. It's because they are the tax. That's not controversial, some people call it simply rent seeking, but Summers should be going a few steps further: can we characterize the exact amount of non-tax compulsory payments (NTCPs) we are giving to Apple? Is there a policy process to convert the beneficiary of NTCPs from private ownership to the public, i.e. make it just a plain old tax?

RhodoYolo 6y ago
Why does US tax money coming back into the country and at what rate? Wouldn't you want to encourage money to be made elsewhere and brought back to the states for investment? or am i fundamentally misunderstanding economics?
- vkou 6y ago
  US citizens are taxed on global income regardless of whether they live in the US, or whether any of their money will ever enter the US. It's only right for US corporations to be taxed the same way. Most of these insane financial contortions are done because they aren't taxed on foreign, non-repatriated earnings - creating an incentive to convert domestic earnings into 'foreign' ones, that get repatriated the next time there's a tax holiday. I personally would love to earmark my personal income as foreign-sourced, and to not pay any taxes on it until I get a tax discount... But if I were to do that, I would go to jail for tax evasion.
  - loosetypes 6y ago
    “The only major nation that taxes its citizens (and green card holders) regardless of where they live is the United States.” “Some lists of countries that tax citizens and legal residents on their worldwide income include Libya, North Korea, Eritrea and the Philippines.” Both from the first search result, https://premieroffshore.com/which-countries-tax-worldwide-income/ https://premieroffshore.com/which-countries-tax-worldwide-in.... At least we’re in good company?
  - AdrianB1 6y ago
    Is it right? I know a lady that has dual-citizenship because a parent is US citizen and one Australian; she had to move in US after living 25 years exclusively in Australia because she had to pay taxes in both countries, in Australia as a resident citizen and in US because she was a citizen. The only other option was to give up to US citizenship, like others do. Is it right?
    - vkou 6y ago
      If you paid foreign tax on foreign earnings you can deduct it from your US taxes. You still have to file, and to pay the difference, if any, every year.
chii 6y ago
> They are accumulating huge stockpiles of cash they cannot spend, they (the corps) can use this asset that they cannot repatriate as collateral for cheap loans.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  I agree with your point (probably), but disagree with the restatement. They can repatriate it; it just does not make business sense to do so. (If they actually couldn't repatriate it, it wouldn't be effective to use as collateral.)

RhodoYolo 6y ago

Why does US tax money coming back into the country and at what rate? Wouldn't you want to encourage money to be made elsewhere and brought back to the states for investment? or am i fundamentally misunderstanding economics?

vkou 6y ago
US citizens are taxed on global income regardless of whether they live in the US, or whether any of their money will ever enter the US. It's only right for US corporations to be taxed the same way. Most of these insane financial contortions are done because they aren't taxed on foreign, non-repatriated earnings - creating an incentive to convert domestic earnings into 'foreign' ones, that get repatriated the next time there's a tax holiday. I personally would love to earmark my personal income as foreign-sourced, and to not pay any taxes on it until I get a tax discount... But if I were to do that, I would go to jail for tax evasion.
- loosetypes 6y ago
  “The only major nation that taxes its citizens (and green card holders) regardless of where they live is the United States.” “Some lists of countries that tax citizens and legal residents on their worldwide income include Libya, North Korea, Eritrea and the Philippines.” Both from the first search result, https://premieroffshore.com/which-countries-tax-worldwide-income/ https://premieroffshore.com/which-countries-tax-worldwide-in.... At least we’re in good company?
- AdrianB1 6y ago
  Is it right? I know a lady that has dual-citizenship because a parent is US citizen and one Australian; she had to move in US after living 25 years exclusively in Australia because she had to pay taxes in both countries, in Australia as a resident citizen and in US because she was a citizen. The only other option was to give up to US citizenship, like others do. Is it right?
  - vkou 6y ago
    If you paid foreign tax on foreign earnings you can deduct it from your US taxes. You still have to file, and to pay the difference, if any, every year.

chii 6y ago

> They are accumulating huge stockpiles of cash they cannot spend, they (the corps) can use this asset that they cannot repatriate as collateral for cheap loans.

sokoloff 6y ago
I agree with your point (probably), but disagree with the restatement. They can repatriate it; it just does not make business sense to do so. (If they actually couldn't repatriate it, it wouldn't be effective to use as collateral.)