Apple CEO Tim Cook Expected to Testify at Senate Hearing on Offshore Taxes

According to Politico, Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing in regards to the company’s offshore tax strategies:

Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify at the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation’s hearing Tuesday, POLITICO has learned.

Apple has been under fire for its tax practices. The company recently avoided paying as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by buying back stock with debt instead of offshore cash, Bloomberg reported. Apple has a reported $100 billion in offshore funds.

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard representatives testified in a hearing last fall related to the same tax issue. According to the hearing’s agenda:

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing, “Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code – Part 2” on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the structures and methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore and how such activities are affected by the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations. Witnesses will include representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, representatives of a multinational corporation, and tax experts. A witness list will be available Friday, May 17, 2013.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling, in a statement to POLITICO says the company welcomes any questions the subcommittee may have:

“Apple is one of the largest taxpayers in the United States, having paid $6 billion in federal corporate income tax in fiscal 2012,” Dowling said in a statement. “We also help create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. by keeping our R&D in California and creating category-defining products like the iPhone, iPad and the app store, which has generated billions of dollars in sales for software developers.”

Tim Cook was last ordered to testify in the ongoing Department of Justice ebooks antitrust case, which an earlier report stated Apple claimed the accused publishers decided to raise book prices on their own.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.