Free Republic

Apple’s most recent quarterly numbers broke all sorts of records and, as we shall see, a number of laws. Apple just released its numbers for the quarter ending last December, the first quarter of its 2015 Fiscal Year. The figures are astonishing: iPhones: Apple sold 74.5M, + 57% over last year’s same quarter. iPhone revenue was $51.2B, + 57%. That’s enough iPhones for 1% of the world population, 9.4 iPhones for every second of the past quarter. I hope to see some day a documentary movie on the supply chain heroics leading (parts manufacturing, assembly, transportation logistics) required to achieve...

This news was actually uncovered by National Review a few days ago, but things have been rather busy so we didn’t get around to it until now. The tax problems which Al Sharpton has run into with his National Action Network are well known and frequently documented. While the non-profit is more than a million dollars in debt to the tax man, Sharpton continues to tap it for a more than one quarter million dollar salary. But as Jillian Kay Melchior discovered with a bit more digging, Sharpton has also started up and abandoned a variety of for profit...

President Barack Obama will propose a "grand bargain for middle-class jobs" on Tuesday that would cut the U.S. corporate tax rate and use billions in revenues generated by a business tax overhaul to fund projects aimed at creating jobs. His goal, to be outlined in a speech at an Amazon.com Inc facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is to break through congressional gridlock by trying to find a formula that satisfies both Republicans and Democrats. Efforts to reach a bipartisan "grand bargain" on deficit reduction have been at an impasse for months. Senior administration officials say Obama is not giving up on...

On Tuesday, KY Sen. Rand Paul launched a spirited defense of Apple, whose tax strategies were subject to a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "I frankly think the committee should apologize to Apple," Paul said. Paul went on to accuse the committee of "bullying" one of America's greatest companies, prompting Sen. John McCain to quickly defend the inquiry and say that Paul's remarks were "frankly, offensive."

At a time when America desperately needs to come together, we are becoming more divided than ever. The mainstream media and most of our politicians love to pit us against one another in dozens of different ways, and right now class warfare has become one of their favorite tools for getting us to hate one another. If you are struggling in this economy, you are being told that "the wealthy" are the cause of your problems. If you have money, you are being told that the poor hate you and want to tax you into oblivion. Class warfare has already...

The New York Times reported Apple “paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8%.” Further more, Apple’s federal tax bill likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year without these moves, says the Times. The fact remains Apple paid less tax than it would have otherwise had it not moved operations to low- or no-tax jurisdictions. Good for Apple. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had the same flexibility?

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) declared on Thursday,“I’m trying to figure out why Al Sharpton isn’t in federal prison for tax evasion.” Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) declared on Thursday,“I’m trying to figure out why Al Sharpton isn’t in federal prison for tax evasion.”

n the opening segment of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation,” host and notorious tax-evader Al Sharpton compared the newly-enacted Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act to Jim Crow and slavery. “This is a key moment for the country,” he said. “Too often in our history, we’ve seen religion used to justify attacks on other people’s rights, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to women’s right to vote.”

Paris (AFP) - Top US diplomat John Kerry on Saturday sought to smooth differences with France over nuclear talks with Iran, agreeing with the French that there were still gaps to overcome in the "critical weeks" ahead. The US secretary of state said it was up to Iran to prove its peaceful intentions to the world if it wants a deal on its nuclear programme ahead of the looming March 31 deadline. He was speaking to reporters after a 20-minute meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris where they tried to iron out their differing views on the...

Al Capone, America’s “favorite” gangster, went to prison because he failed to pay $215,000 in taxes from his gambling profits. Al Sharpton, on the other hand, is still romping around screaming about racism despite the fact that he owes roughly $4 million to Federal and State revenuers. I guess the IRS is just too busy harassing conservatives to care about some uppity liberal who’s a few million dollars behind on his taxes.The gaffable (is that a word?) Al Sharpton personally faces Federal tax liens for more than $3 million in back taxes. He has over $770,000 in state tax liens. Two...

Serial tax avoidance appears to be a hallmark of Al Sharpton’s operations. But there’s a warning here: Others have gone to prison for lesser amounts. The list includes rock legend Chuck Berry, Grammy winner Lauryn Hill, Ron Isley of the Isley Brothers, Survivor reality star Richard Hatch, hotel queen Leona Helmsely, and baseball’s Pete Rose. According to a New York Times’ review of government records last fall, the MSNBC host and civil rights activist personally faces federal tax liens for more than $3 million in back taxes owed, and state tax liens of $777,657. So in total, Sharpton reportedly owes...

Why would Apple — a company with $178 billion in cash — need a loan? In short: taxes. The vast majority of Apple's cash hoard is held offshore. Apple can defer taxes on that cash until it decides to bring it back to the U.S. Apple doesn't want to bring the money home, though. It could pay up to 35% of whatever it brings back to Uncle Sam, which could easily be a multi-billion dollar tax bill. Apple wants a tax repatriation holiday, like the one recently proposed by Senators Barbara Boxer and Rand Paul. But the prospects for the Boxer-Paul plan aren't...

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm plans to resign, Fox News confirmed Monday, one week after the Staten Island congressman admitted to federal tax evasion. Grimm, who was re-elected to a third term representing New York's 13th district in November, is expected to resign sometime this week. Grimm, a Republican, pleaded guilty on Dec. 23 in federal court in Brooklyn to one count of aiding in the filing of a tax return

Suffering from a clear lack of intellectual honesty, the morally bankrupt progressive socialist mayor of New York City seems to have a knack for tax avoidance. (And remember: despite what Harry Reid would have you believe, tax avoidance is not a crime.) According to public records, Bill “punish the rich” de Blasio paid a mere 8 percent of his income in federal taxes. Just to put that in context for any liberal that has accidently stumbled across this paragraph: That’s less than that capitalist pig, Mitt Romney paid in prior years. Of course, to be fair, it is possible...

Shurat Hadin (the Israel Law Center) has filed a legal complaint against the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), alleging violations of the US tax code for unlawful political lobbying and contact with Hezbollah, a US-designated terrorist organization. […] Shurat Hadin said it provided the IRS with “documentary and video evidence showing PCUSA delegates meeting with the US-designated terrorist group Hezbollah, publishing anti-Semitic materials, enacting a racist policy to divest from American companies doing business with Israel, lobbying the US Congress, and distributing political advocacy materials in violation of its tax-exempt status as a religious organization.” The PCUSA declined to provide an...

Loretta Lynch, who has been nominated by President Obama to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General, took part in a 2007 panel discussion at Duke Law School prompted by the Duke lacrosse rape case. Lynch's comments provide insight into her mindset and raise unsettling questions about her commitment to equal justice and the rights of the accused. The event took place on September 28, 2007. The wounds were still raw for members of the Duke lacrosse team, their families, and in a sense, the entire nation. That same month, Michael Nifong, the former District Attorney who had knowingly pursued...

[full title] “Look at the Tea Party: Some of the angriest, most hateful people on earth, and they’re backed by what they think is Scripture” Forgiveness has become a pursuit more important to me than almost anything. Because as I said in an old book, it’s not my strong suit. I always joke that I wasn’t one of those Christians who was heavily into forgiveness – that I was the other kind; that I was reform. But it’s so awful to be a person who doesn’t forgive; in my experience the willingness to change down deep always comes from the...

Years of massive corruption by the man known for stirring up race relations and making them worse are finally being exposed. While flying around the country first class, dressed in lavish suits, and most recently stirring the pot in Ferguson, Mo., Al Sharpton has avoided paying millions in taxes - that would have landed the rest of us in prison. The situation is so egregious that even the left-wing New York Times finally wrote a long article last week exposing Sharpton’s tax evasion as well as graft and crime going all the way back to his teenage years. The Times found there...

Professional racial agitator Al Sharpton responded to Tuesday’s NY Times piece revealing that both Sharpton and his charity National Action Network was increasingly delinquent in paying taxes to NY State and vendors who performed services. According to the MSNBC host and architect of racial discord, the progressive NY Times published the story because of politically motivated hostility toward Bill de Blasio and Barack Obama: I think it’s political, he said. A lot of people don’t like the fact that President Obama’s the president. A lot of people do not like the fact that Bill de Blasio won for mayor....

--SNIP-- The finances of the Rev. Al Sharpton have a somewhat troubled history. He was indicted on charges of income tax fraud and stealing from charitable donors in 1989, but was eventually acquitted at a trial. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to file a tax return for 1986. His eponymous promotional company has no official documents on record with the state. As recently as two years ago, he drew no salary, but he still manages to send his daughters to an expensive and respected private school. Mr. Sharpton has always been studiously circumspect when...