Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), is accused by the biggest German newspaper of lying about the percentage of taxes it pays for the receipts and profit generated in Europe. Apple stated that it has a tax rate of 21% for receipts, but the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitunga states that in fact the real percentage would be between 1 and 7.
The newspaper reached this conclusion by analyzing some internal documents of the Apple company and asks Tim Cook how moral is everything that his company does. Apple is not acting illegally, but the newspaper says that it is doing it immorally, because it does not support the countries in which it earns that money by not paying the taxes normally due.
Neither Apple nor the German newspaper have offered explanations regarding the calculations they did to arrive at the percentages they claim, so no one knows what's going on. Even so, if Apple is really lying, then we are talking about a new era in which Apple would have lost its morality just to protect its profit.
The reality is that Apple announces a record profit in every fiscal quarter, representing between 20% and 25% of the revenues, and this amazes every time. We will probably not find out too soon what the truth is behind the financial machinery of Apple, but it is quite clear that it does not pay as high taxes as the rest of the companies and it is not alone.
"Apple directly benefits from the infrastructure - educational or otherwise - that countries maintain. Mr. Cook, you recently told the New York Times that Apple had a "moral responsibility" not only to help grow the US economy, but also "to contribute to the other countries that we do business in" […] Why do you want that? Why do you feel entitled to not pay any taxes in a country? Did you want to make zero-tax status a precondition for establishing tax residency there? What gives you the right to do so?"
