Depends on whether said funds have already been taxed overseas. If you operated a business, sold goods in Europe, and dutifully paid taxes on said goods to European governments, would you want to have the U.S. government double-dip and levy even more taxes on what you earned overseas? Or would you leave the already-taxed money overseas and use it to continue funding your overseas operations?
If you sell a product in Germany and pay taxes to the German government, are you evading taxes because you don’t want the U.S. government to double-dip and also charge taxes?
The late Steve Jobs floated the idea of a ‘tax holiday’ so Apple could repatriate funds at a lower tax rate. Apple’s willing to get double-dinged by the U.S. government to some extent – I believe the current rates on getting double-dinged are seen as rather steep given that they’ve already paid taxes to overseas governments.
In recent quarters, Apple has made more in profit than Google has in revenue. I think that qualifies them as a pretty big fish. Microsoft still reaps a ton from the Office franchise, of course.
But they have paid taxes overseas on the profit generated overseas. Granted, in many cases the tax rates are more favorable overseas. But I can understand these companies for not wanting to pay taxes in Europe and in the States on the same money.
And Apple has stated its willingness to repatriate at a lowered tax rate, should a ‘tax holiday’ be provided – they’re willing to get double-dinged to some extent, just not get double-dinged badly.
I wonder if a compromise could be struck. Many companies, Apple included, have asked for a tax holiday so they can repatriate some of the funds at a lower tax rate. (So they’re willing to pay some taxes to repatriate – they’re not asking for zero taxes.)
In many cases, the funds sitting overseas have already been taxed in the countries where they were generated. These companies don’t want to get double-dinged – or at least, not get double-dinged badly.
