The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Outpost Cafe => Topic started by: Rob on May 24, 2013, 05:03:35 PM
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Found this on Fark
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/052313-657569-gibson-guitar-raid-like-tea-party-intimidation.htm
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Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
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Apple is next. They have the unmitigated gall to follow the law and make horrifically obscene profits.
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I'm not buying that theory at all. Before the raid, Henry J. and Gibson donated to Democrats and Republicans and he wasn't a Tea Party supporter. Besides, Luthiers Mercantile was raided at the same time and they aren't Republican supporters.
Interestingly, one of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars contain "East Indian Rosewood," which is the exact same wood in at least 10 of Gibson's guitars. So why were they not also raided and their inventory of foreign wood seized?
I'll tell you why: there's no evidence that Martin's wood was illegally imported. Not all East Indian Rosewood comes from the country of India, not by a long shot -- it's a popular name for a group of species from southeast Asia, not a proof of country of origin -- and if some of Martin's EIR did come from India, it came before the Indian government's 5-year moratorium on exporting unfinished boards. Martin made it clear that they stopped importing from India when the 5-year moratorium went into effect.
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I think the most likely answer to why all these things happened is because bureaucrats with a Barney-One-Bullet mentality like to do things to make themselves look important. Of course, needless to say, all anyone can do is guess on this matter. Having the people involved tell us the real reason is something that's never going to happen.
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the apple way. isn't that where you hide 44 billion dollars to avoid paying tax on it.
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What 44 Billion...? :rimshot:
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the apple way. isn't that where you hide 44 billon dollars to avoid paying tax on it.
Probably a lot more than that - they're swimming in money. It's sleazy as all hell but legal.
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They probably asked G.E. how to do it.
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They probably asked G.E. how to do it.
Buy a television network and then sell half of it to a cable company while slowly divesting under the cover of fake partisan-positioning against your billionaire-buddies.
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Our VP of IT was telling me yesterday that Apple is taking some hard licks due to backlash from the tax stories. They're not making a lot of friends at the moment
I also saw a diagram of smart phone sales and their iPhone sales are about 1/3 of Android sales. They may have to have Jim Cameron computer-animate Steve Jobs and make a hologram their company spokesman.
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Even as Apple's market share decreases they are still the leader. All iPhones are produced by Apple, Android phones are produced by Samsung, Nokia, LG, HTC and a bunch of others none of which sells as many phones as Apple.
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I've never been an Apple fan, but I can't fault them for using available legal tax strategies. Apple's problem is the same as Microsoft used to have: they're under the delusion that if they mind their own business, that Congress and regulators will leave them alone. The truth is that they have a target on their back. Sadly,they need to spend money and buy legislators. That's the way it is in today's world.
As for market share in smart phones, their dominance was bound to lessen in time. Bringing Steve Jobs back from the dead wouldn't change that.
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I've never been an Apple fan, but I can't fault them for using available legal tax strategies. Apple's problem is the same as Microsoft used to have: they're under the delusion that if they mind their own business, that Congress and regulators will leave them alone. The truth is that they have a target on their back. Sadly,they need to spend money and buy legislators. That's the way it is in today's world.
As for market share in smart phones, their dominance was bound to lessen in time. Bringing Steve Jobs back from the dead wouldn't change that.
True, however....in the last two years, Apple's market share has increased 1.4 times. Samsung's market share is up 7 times over the same period. In that period Apple has grown from 16% to 22% of the market, Samsung has grown from 4% to 29%, overtaking Apple as the single largest manufacturer.
Ref is slide #42: http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/kpcb-internet-trends-2013?utm_source=slideshow&utm_medium=ssemail&utm_campaign=weekly_digest
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As I understand it the US has some some of the highest taxes in the world on corporations. Then we provide legal methods for them to shelter money off shore.
I'm anything but an Apple fan boy but I don't blame them.
Like I said earlier - it's sleazy as hell. Motorola is starting to build a new smart phone here in Texas - I'm hopeful that it's a competitive product at a competitive price.
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I've never been an Apple fan, but I can't fault them for using available legal tax strategies. Apple's problem is the same as Microsoft used to have: they're under the delusion that if they mind their own business, that Congress and regulators will leave them alone. The truth is that they have a target on their back. Sadly,they need to spend money and buy legislators. That's the way it is in today's world.
As for market share in smart phones, their dominance was bound to lessen in time. Bringing Steve Jobs back from the dead wouldn't change that.
US tax law needs to change, see the current 'Economist' (not exactly a liberal rag) pp.65-66 if you need to know why. Example:
USA law says a corporation's residency is based on where a firm is incorporated, Irish law says it is where it is managed or otherwise controlled. This lets Apple claim it is a resident of nowhere for tax purposes.
Let's see how many lobbyists and lawmakers Apple buys with some of the $30 billion profit made between 2009-2012 by Apple Operations International, incorporated and based in Cork, Ireland, which in turn is parent to the group's international sales arm. The company is managed from the US (board meetings are held here). No tax was paid on that $30,000,000,000 anywhere.
Indeed they have a target on their back and rightfully so.
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US tax law needs to change..............
Indeed they have a target on their back and rightfully so.
Agreed.
As I suspected we're #1 and Ireland is next to last with Swiss having a rate of only 8.5%. Here's the first article I found to verify:
http://www.aei.org/article/economics/fiscal-policy/taxes/report-card-on-effective-corporate-tax-rates/
I'm all for having a rate at least as low as Mexico for cripes sake providing that we have a sweeping change that eliminates the the loop holes while fostering an environment that business can survive in.
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Agreed.
As I suspected we're #1 and Ireland is next to last with Swiss having a rate of only 8.5%. Here's the first article I found to verify:
http://www.aei.org/article/economics/fiscal-policy/taxes/report-card-on-effective-corporate-tax-rates/
I'm all for having a rate at least as low as Mexico for cripes sake providing that we have a sweeping change that eliminates the the loop holes while fostering an environment that business can survive in.
The big corporations are perfectly happy to have the US tax rates where they are. They can complain about how high the nominal rates are while never paying anywhere near them. It's cheaper to pay lobbyists, tax lawyers and legislators to make and keep the loopholes than it is to pay a reasonable rate.
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Saw that about Motorola - good for them!
I personally don't have heartburn about Apple sheltering income offshore. There are rules, and everyone can play by them. Some work for you, some work against you. That's true for the Feds and for businesses.
Same here at the university - we have lots of rules, and when students find ways to use them to their advantage, I applaud them. We spend enough time being a pain in the butt to students that it's nice to see that some are smart enough to game the system and take advantage.
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Saw that about Motorola - good for them!
I personally don't have heartburn about Apple sheltering income offshore. There are rules, and everyone can play by them. Some work for you, some work against you. That's true for the Feds and for businesses.
Same here at the university - we have lots of rules, and when students find ways to use them to their advantage, I applaud them. We spend enough time being a pain in the butt to students that it's nice to see that some are smart enough to game the system and take advantage.
I doubt you let your students write the rules. This is essentially what the corporations do through their lawyers and lobbyists and if necessary outright bribery.
To me it's no different than what corporations have done to intellectual property laws, changing the rules to their benefit. Then they expect the rest of the world to enforce them.
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I'm a big free market/capitalist, limited government guy myself. That said, our entire tax structure is so utterly f'd up I think it is beyond repair. Time for a redo.
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I doubt you let your students write the rules. This is essentially what the corporations do through their lawyers and lobbyists and if necessary outright bribery.
To me it's no different than what corporations have done to intellectual property laws, changing the rules to their benefit. Then they expect the rest of the world to enforce them.
The corruption of the "intellectual property" industry is even a bigger threat than ordinary crony capitalism. It's a huge threat to free speech.
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I doubt you let your students write the rules. This is essentially what the corporations do through their lawyers and lobbyists and if necessary outright bribery.
I think you're right, but that doesn't change the fact that the laws are what they are. I also agree that they should be changed, but they haven't yet...and those who learn how to use the rules can benefit.
There are plenty of ways in which special interests dictate laws (firearms, tax policy and lending interest being examples) but that's part of the long-term process of running a country set up like the US. I don't have to like it, but I recognize it.
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I doubt you let your students write the rules. This is essentially what the corporations do through their lawyers and lobbyists and if necessary outright bribery.
To me it's no different than what corporations have done to intellectual property laws, changing the rules to their benefit. Then they expect the rest of the world to enforce them.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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