That's why being rich is so amazing - you get to play by a different set of rules. Or, once you're "3rd level rich" - write the rules of the game.
Apple aren't breaking any laws. They, and other of their size, can just ~bribe~ lobby politicians to make special little loopholes for them, loopholes you can't take advantage of, but you can't pay an army of accountants. But, honestly, I can't blame Apple too much here.
We are at a place of our history where giant, global corporations operate outside of any national/political boundary. They have offices everywhere, employees everywhere - it's a nightmare to figure out whom they should even pay taxes to, and how much.
I'm not even close to being Apple-level, but even lowly plebs like myself face similar issues.
I have two passports, but it's a major pain for me to live in place A for more than X months and pay taxes to country C which has an office in D but I'm technically an employee only in office G in region Z - even though it's all the same damn company - again - who gets to tax me? Both countries? One country? No country? Why can't I live in Spain and work for a US company that has European HQ without incredible hassles? And if I could - the US would still like their share of my pie in the form of taxes.
I think a lot of this stems from the simple truth that we are in a new kind of economy, where money and information can flow instantaneously, yet our laws are still bound to archaic nation-state concepts of "physical presence". Which made total sense pre 1950, not so much anymore.
Apple aren't breaking any laws. They, and other of their size, can just ~bribe~ lobby politicians to make special little loopholes for them, loopholes you can't take advantage of, but you can't pay an army of accountants. But, honestly, I can't blame Apple too much here.
We are at a place of our history where giant, global corporations operate outside of any national/political boundary. They have offices everywhere, employees everywhere - it's a nightmare to figure out whom they should even pay taxes to, and how much.
I'm not even close to being Apple-level, but even lowly plebs like myself face similar issues.
I have two passports, but it's a major pain for me to live in place A for more than X months and pay taxes to country C which has an office in D but I'm technically an employee only in office G in region Z - even though it's all the same damn company - again - who gets to tax me? Both countries? One country? No country? Why can't I live in Spain and work for a US company that has European HQ without incredible hassles? And if I could - the US would still like their share of my pie in the form of taxes.
I think a lot of this stems from the simple truth that we are in a new kind of economy, where money and information can flow instantaneously, yet our laws are still bound to archaic nation-state concepts of "physical presence". Which made total sense pre 1950, not so much anymore.