John E. Sununu, a former U.S. Senator wrote on a newspaper column last Monday pointing fingers at the U.S Congress for the guidelines and policies that permits companies such as Apple to evade American taxes.
Sununu was a Republican from New Hampshire who served one term as a Senator, and is now working as a columnist for Boston Globe. In his column published during Memorial Day, he criticized the members of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for point out Apple on tax issues, even if the company was still operating within the boundaries of the law.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was summoned by the subcommittee to provide explanations on why Apple has over $100 billion of cash abroad, most of it being held with Irish subsidiaries. By doing this, the company was able to cut billions worth of repatriation taxes.
Currently, the rate for sending back cash from overseas to the U.S. is 35 percent, making it one of the highest rates in the world. Cook disputed before the subcommittee that an overhaul of the U.S. tax code is needed in order to fix that matter.
Sununu wrote that Cook made an impressive argument. One good reason could be that more than 60,000 employees are relying on him to defend the company, and by giving striking lines such as 'we pay all the taxes we owe - every single dollar,' he made his point come across strong and clear.
The former Senator strongly believes that it is the Congress' failure to update and reform tax laws that created this issue to begin with. This allowed several companies, and not only Apple, to take their money overseas. Other big companies such as Yahoo, are also doing the same thing. Some are even bringing it as far as to the Cayman Islands and the Caribbean.
