奧巴馬和蘋果CEO在電話里談了什么？
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????上周末，美國總統奧巴馬（Obama）在展開東南亞之行前，致電多位商界領袖，蘋果公司（Apple）CEO蒂姆?庫克也在名單中。 ????上周，奧巴馬會見了十幾位商界CEO，討論所謂的“財政懸崖”問題。周末他又聯系了另外四位，其中就有庫克。 ????白宮沒有披露他們談論的話題，但也不難猜。 ????奧巴馬在連任競選過程中，曾多次談到要堵上給輸出就業的美國公司帶來了好處的稅收漏洞。 ????幾乎已將所有制造生產環節輸出至亞洲的蘋果公司不遺余力地游說美國政府，希望能獲得臨時性稅收減免，以便它將海外積累的一些現金“返回”國內。換言之，可在美國國內使用，無需支付聯邦稅款。 ????這對蘋果是個多大的問題呢？ ????根據上個月這家公司提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的10-K表格，這家公司的現金和有價證券總額已達到了創紀錄的1,213億美元，其中有826億美元是在海外。 ????蘋果公司的海外利潤支付的稅率極低——2012年支付稅款7.13億美元，有效稅率不到2%。 ????相比之下，蘋果公司2012年在美國支付的聯邦和各州稅款為133億美元，聯邦稅率高達35%。 ????2%和35%的差距，或許可以稱之為“漏洞”。何時以及如何補上這個漏洞，或許是美國總統和蒂姆?庫克想要討論的內容。 ????譯者：楊智 |
????One of thebusiness leaders President Obama called last weekend before he began his Southeast Asia visit was Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook. ????The President met with a dozen CEOs last week to talk about the so-called fiscal cliff, and he reached out to four more over the weekend, including Cook. ????The White House did not disclose the subject of their chat, but it's not hard to guess. ????During his re-election campaign, Obama talked a lot about closing tax loopholes that reward U.S. companies for exporting jobs. ????Apple, which has shipped almost all its manufacturing work to Asia, has lobbied heavily for a tax holiday that would allow it to "repatriate" some the cash it has accumulated overseas -- i.e. spend it in the U.S without having to pay federal taxes on it. ????How big an issue is that for Apple? ????Well, according to the Form 10-K the company filed with the SEC last month, of the record $121.3 billion in cash and marketable securities it has accumulated, $82.6 billion is parked overseas. ????Apple pays extraordinarily low tax rates on its foreign earnings -- $713 million in 2012 at an effective rate of less than 2%. ????This compares to the $13.3 billion Apple paid in state and federal taxes in the U.S. in 2012, where the federal tax rate is 35%. ????The discrepancy between 2% and 35% is what you might call a loophole. When it gets closed -- and how it gets closed -- is something the President and Tim Cook might want to talk about. |
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