Apple Must Repay Record EUR 13 Billion in Back Taxes Over Irish Deal: EU

The European Union on Tuesday said US tech giant Apple must repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion or roughly Rs. 95,910 crores) in back taxes after ruling that a series of Irish sweetheart tax deals were illegal.

"The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to 13 billion euros to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid," a Commission statement said.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple's "selective treatment" in Ireland meant it paid an effective tax rate of just one percent on its European profits in 2003, which then fell to a bare 0.005 percent by 2014.

"The tax treatment in Ireland enabled Apple to avoid taxation on almost all profits generated by sales of Apple products in the entire EU single market."

Brussels launched an inquiry into Apple's tax arrangements in Ireland in 2014, one of a series of anti-trust cases targeting major US corporations that have angered Washington.

Apple's pays the bulk of its taxes in the United States, where it is headquarters are located, where it reports its profits. ... However in 2014, their effective tax rate was 20%. Amazon's is about the same as Apple's

Swordmaker, what you have stated directly contradicts much of an article from Business Insider from 2014 titled, “Here's How Much Money Apple Avoids Paying In Taxes By Pretending It's Based In Ireland”

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-apple-avoids-paying-in-taxes-2014-6

I am certain that the article was part of a vast right wing conspiracy from the same people trying to pick on poor Hillary. And it actually was based largely on information from a congressional inquiry which found, “Apple wasn't even reporting its U.S. taxes accurately, either, the Senate subcommittee found. Its (Apple's) annual report disclosed it paid much higher U.S. taxes than it actually paid to the IRS.”

Apple's statements about the taxes that it does or does not pay seem to directly parallel the claims Hillary Clinton made about her experiences as Secretary of State when she spoke to Congress. In other words, Apple and Hillary lie... a lot. And every once in a while it catches up with them... sometimes with humorous results.

Apple doesn't "pretend" it's based in Ireland. Apple's headquarters are in Cupertino, California. They pay taxes in the United States and California using that address, not from Ireland. Ireland is Apple's European headquarters, manufacturing, and distribution center. All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland. Sales generated in Europe are taxed based on its laws. If it were based in Germany, it would be taxed on German laws. All of the EU recognizes that system. . . Except for this Commission who want to unilaterally regulate all EU countries' tax laws to be the same with out having the authority to do so. The treaty that established the EU among its member nations allowed all member nations to retain autonomy in their tax laws and regulations, and recognized reciprocity of those laws among the several nations.

The same principle is recognized among ALL of the nations of the world. It is what allows businesses to maintain some sense of sanity in a world of multiple taxing authorities. . . A company is taxed by its home nation for the majority of its income taxes. Other taxes are local.

Business Insider is quoting a Democratic Senator's committee research, which HAD claimed Apple paid ZERO US income taxes, a facturd that was thoroughly shot down in hearing during which Apple submitted its AUDITED US Corporate Income Tax Returns for the previous years show that not only had Apple PAID US Income Taxes, but that it was the LARGEST payer of US corporate income Taxes in two of the last five years!

In 2012, Apple had paid $1 out of every $40 the IRS had collected from ALL businesses in the United States that year. Not one cent of money earned Apple has in the US has found its way to Ireland.

Apple's effective US Tax Rate has varied from a high of 29% to a low of 25.28% depending on expenses. You can look these figures up on Google. If Apple and its officers are reporting LIES on its AUDITED Financial statements, then under the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, Apple's officers would be personally liable for fines and prison sentences of up to $20 million and 20 years in Federal prison, per lie. These are SERIOUS charges. In addition, Apple itself would be liable for Stockhold suits since every stockholder uses both tax returns and financial statements to make their investment decisions, and the amount of their compensation is determined by much of those amounts. If the management is playing around with those figures, an easy thing to find, they'd sue Apple, the officers, the board, and the accountancy firm who certified all of those figures as true and accurate for EVERYTHING THEY OWN!

Since you claim they have mis-reported the amounts they have paid on TAX RETURNS to the Federal Government, on Financial Statements, these would be easily checkable LIES. These figures MUST balance. They'd stick out like a smashed thumb. . . Yet the IRS, multiple news organizations, thousands of investors and stockholders, the entire staff of the SEC, all seem to have missed the fact these figures simply don't balance. Only the genius Fireman15 seems to have come to this conclusion! They obviously have not done what YOU CLAIM TO HAVE DONE. So, are the officers of Apple liars who are hiding the facts in plain sight, or are YOU making claims you can't back up? I think it's the latter. That makes you the liar, again.

I will put Apple's financial published public records, which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under thread of SEVERE PENALTIES and Sworn to under thread of perjury, as true and factual against any article written by unknown journalists who routinely get things wrong, have no skin in the game except they might have to write a retraction, if they bother, who are quoting Democratic congressional committee pukes who have ALREADY been shown to have done very poor research when the facts were available to them — had they bothered to LOOK instead of making up their facts from their assumed biases and wishful thinking. A lot of what was reported in this Business Insider article is what the EU conclusion is based on, before the Commission even STARTED their investigation. It's based on what the EU commissioners would have WANTED the Irish tax laws to have been — Liberal Wet Dream Tax Laws for the last 30 years — rather than what the Irish tax laws ACTUALLY were and ARE, I.e., reality.

Only the genius Fireman15 seems to have come to this conclusion! They obviously have not done what YOU CLAIM TO HAVE DONE. So, are the officers of Apple liars who are hiding the facts in plain sight, or are YOU making claims you can't back up? I think it's the latter. That makes you the liar, again.

Swordmaker, I am not drawing any conclusions I am only quoting from articles that I have read. I obviously do not have access to the inside info that you do. I am relying strictly to media outlets such as Business Insider which I provided a link to for my information.

Obviously these media sources are part of the same vast right wing conspiracy trying to take poor Hillary down. /s

Maybe they are doing this because as Breitbart reported in the following article “Apple’s CEO Tim Cook Hosts $50,000-per-Ticket Hillary Fundraiser”

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/31/apples-ceo-hosts-50000-ticket-hillary-clinton-fundraiser/

Apple is, has been and will continue to be completely in the tank for the Democrats. If you like their products, that is fine, but the political activities of their leadership is a blight on our country.

This is not to mention the countless millions Apple has been funneling to the Clintons through the Clinton Foundation. So if you want to find someone sympathetic toward Apple's current legal difficulties because of their long established pattern of tax evasion you are going to have to find someone other than me.

Apple is, has been and will continue to be completely in the tank for the Democrats. If you like their products, that is fine, but the political activities of their leadership is a blight on our country.

Neither Apple nor Tim Cook are among the listed donors to the Clinton Foundation, nor has Apple ever paid either of the Clintons to come and make a speech, nor were they among the major donors to the Democrats in the 2012 Election cycle. There were some small, minor donations from individuals associated with Apple and the Apple Employees Political Action Committee made donations, but NOT Apple. THAT was why Apple was targeted by the Democrats for special attention for tax problems in the Senate. Apple did not even have a Lobbying presence in Washington, D. C. until after that event. Sorry, you are just dead wrong on your allegations.

You did indeed draw conclusions not based in anything you read. You concluded that Apple must be reporting less taxes on their IRS forms than they do in their financial statements. One of the other is therefore a lie. . . A crime on either one which you accused Apple of committing based on ZERO evidence. That was a conclusion you made and stated as a fact.

You made that claim and others which refuted completely in your last post. . . You are using sources of dubious repute using other sources of dubious repute to make your conclusionary claims of illegal activities, claims of lies made by Apple officers which you cannot back up, lies that are easily checked by anyone who bothers to investigate even those things you claim are not matching, which YOU DIDN'T BOTHER TO DO BEFORE YOU POSTED YOUR LIES.

That means that what you carelessly post is unchecked, the work of a few seconds, and is therefor likely to be false, and/or made up on the spur of the moment to support your vile agenda, and nothing you post can be trusted to be at all truthful! From that, I conclude that you have no honor!

Now you escalate your accusations of criminal activity on the part of Apple to "tax evasion."

You also cannot document anywhere Apple has participated in TAX EVASION. There is a huge difference between Tax Avoidance which is perfectly LEGAL and the criminal act of TAX EVASION, which you just accused Apple of participating in, You have ZERO facts to back up your calumny, all of which you just made up out of your facturds you've pulled out of your nether regions. Which make it all just more of your lies. Not even a good college try, because you offered not an iota of evidence, not a whit!

Are you sure you are on the right site for the spewing of your propagandist lies? The Democrats do that kind of thing. Perhaps they may be in better need of your particlular talents.

Criticize Apple's leadership's political positions all you like, but don't do it with lies and accusations of criminal activity unless you can back it up with facts.

From today's independent financial report Seeking Alpha:

"For those that believe Apple is doing something incredibly wrong here, it is important to point out that the company has the highest effective GAAP rate when compared to many large cap US tech names. Just take a look at some of these facts:

From fiscal 2013 through 2015, Apple's tax rate came in around 26.20%, and it is above 25% so far this fiscal year.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) - In its last three fiscal years, average tax rate is 22.72%, with two years under 21% (one year under 15%!).
In its last two fiscal years, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has averaged an 18.25% rate.
From 2013 to 2015, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) averaged 18.33% and has not had a yearly rate higher than 21.08%.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) in 2014 and 2015 averaged just over 19%, with last year barely being above 16%.
(Author note: All information for tax rates sourced from respective company 10-Q and 10-K filings on SEC Edgar site.)
Between fiscal 2013 and 2015, Apple reported a GAAP provision for income taxes of more than $46.2 billion. That's more than $10 billion more than the four names I mentioned above paid in a combined ten fiscal year periods! Imagine how much more Apple would have earned if it had a tax rate as low as some of these others.

"Apple wasn't even reporting its U.S. taxes accurately, either, the Senate subcommittee found. Its annual report disclosed it paid much higher U.S. taxes than it actually paid to the IRS (see page 39). To investors, Apple said it paid $6.9 billion in U.S. taxes in 2011. But it actually only paid the IRS $2.5 billion, according to its tax return."

That is a quote from the following link... not from me...

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-apple-avoids-paying-in-taxes-2014-6

So the difference between the financial statement they released to investors was off by a mere $4 Billion according to the Senate investigation. But it is easy to see how a million here and a million there and the addition gets a little screwed up.

And Apple is currently and remains in the tank for the Democrats. I am surprised that you would make any attempt to argue this point with anyone. I will repeat the link to the Breitbart article since you must not have noticed it.

“Apple’s CEO Tim Cook Hosts $50,000-per-Ticket Hillary Fundraiser”

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/31/apples-ceo-hosts-50000-ticket-hillary-clinton-fundraiser/

I realize that $50,000 a plate is just a drop in the bucket for many silicon valley big wigs, but some people consider hosting a fundraiser that brought in millions of dollars for Hillary to be a bad thing.

And then there is this: Apple vs. the FBI: How campaign contributions are influencing the debate

https://www.crowdpac.com/blog/encryption

If you look through the article you will see that contributions from Apple and their employees favor Democrats by a very, very large margin. Is this really an area that you want to try and grind through.

I don't mind your harsh rhetoric because I understand that your emotional attachment to the company is deep. But they are a company who is doing basically all that they can do to support Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump. And they don't spend almost unimaginable amounts of money on their legal team because they are choir boys.

“Unlike Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which have all said they will provide some support to the GOP event in Cleveland next month, Apple decided against donating technology or cash to the effort, according to two sources familiar with the iPhone maker’s plans. Apple’s political stand against Trump, communicated privately to Republicans, is a sign of the widening schism between Silicon Valley and the GOP’s bombastic presumptive nominee.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/apple-wont-aid-gop-convention-over-trump-224513

Apple is on the side of the Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in the current political battle. They are the most firmly “never trump” company that I am aware of. This is the most important political battle in most of our lifetimes. Apple has drawn clear lines and unlike Obama they are not backing down. At this time they are bad, bad news. If Hillary wins it will be largely because of assistance from companies like Apple. At this point in time Apple is clearly acting like the enemy. They want the Clintons to win, to name the next several Supreme Court Justices, and continue Obama's disastrous policies. Are you really trying to argue that they are neutral in this battle? Really?

All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland.

This is just one of the many untrue statements that you have made. I assume that this is some type of Apple style legalese because not all Apple products sold in Europe are manufactured in Ireland which is what you are implying. This is easy to verify. It is similar to many of the other misleading statements that you have made at the same time that you loudly accused me of being dishonorable along with a string of other insults and smears. Shame on you! I did not realize how low that you would stoop to defend the company.

You also have accused me of using only disreputable sources such as Business Insider and Breitbart. I would like to ad another source, Forbes. Do you consider them to be disreputable also?

“How Does Apple Avoid Taxes?” from Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leesheppard/2013/05/28/how-does-apple-avoid-taxes/#1d882dc4d6f7

Just a couple quotes from the article:

“Apple set up some Irish subsidiaries a mere four years after it was founded. Foreign sales, which account for 60% of Apple’s profits, are routed through these Irish subsidiaries and taxed nowhere.”

“Beneath the holding company is an Irish principal company that holds the contracts with Apple’s Chinese contract manufacturers and owns the inventory they produce. It also claims tax residence nowhere, despite having paid some tax to Ireland in recent years, but at rate far below the statutory rate.”

After your derogatory rants I feel it is safer to stick mostly to quotes, but it is obvious to anyone with a smidgen of common sense that Apple plays fast and loose with the rules for financial gain, and then pays a small army of lawyers to get them out of difficulty. They also have clearly stated that they are firmly against Trump and are doing everything they can to get Hillary elected. Very few companies make their political intentions so clear.

Look, idiot. Now you are distorting what I said. I did not say they were "MANUFACTURED" in Ireland, although the some of the European iMacs are manufactured in Apple's factory there, just as Apple makes iMacs here in California in Elk Grove. I said they were transshipped from Ireland. Some products are drop shipped from China. But the are ordered through Ireland. Ireland is where the orders go. The low person here is the liar who accuses people of CRIMES on absolutely no evidence such a crime has occurred merely because you WANT it to have occurred.

You keep going back for OLD articles, 2014, now 2013. . . digging to find some dirt which is based on someone's suspicions and theories, again not based on any evidence.

This Forbes article is based that VERY committee I already told you about that did not do its homework and was roundly slapped down in hearings when Apple came in with its AUDITED TAX RETURNS showing that those profits were TAXED in the United States, not "taxed nowhere" as the committee researchers were falsely claiming! In fact, as I told you, that same committee researchers were claiming that Apple had paid ZERO taxes. They also claimed that General Electric had paid ZERO TAXES. . . but were ignoring that General Electric was now a FRENCH company and paid the vast majority of their income taxes in FRANCE! These researchers were college interns who were essentially incompetents, which made them IDIOTS who did not understand how international Income Taxation works in the modern world and did not bother to ask any experts. They had built a house of straw in their reports. . . but it had little fact to back up their conclusions. Just as you don't have any facts to back up your assertions.

That is why you ARE an idiot. You grab things you find and post them yelling "GOTCHA!" without knowing the whole story and don't bother to do the heavy lifting research. Fireman, you have to remember I have been posting these stories, both pro and con for over 12 years on FreeRepublic and researching them long before you came on to Apple threads and THOUGHT you could publish something I don't know about. I am also educated as an Economist and have BEEN a CEO. I know a lot more about the laws and facts behind these things than do you. I follow them.

"“Apple set up some Irish subsidiaries a mere four years after it was founded. Foreign sales, which account for 60% of Apple’s profits, are routed through these Irish subsidiaries and taxed nowhere.”

It was those VERY accusations that brought Tim Cook to Washington to testify, under oath, before the Senate investigative committee and BRING IN APPLE'S US TAX RETURNS which showed that Apple's PROFITS were entirely TAXED! He answered the questions under grilling from those SAME DAMN RESEARCHERS who couldn't find the facts for themselves! Cook's testimony on VIDEO is available on the Internet if you'd care to view it. I posted it on FreeRepublic when he made it and others on FR saw it, and discussed it.

The committee made all kinds of assumptions based on ZERO evidence and that is what is reported in this Forbes article. Just because it is published in Forbes does NOT mean it is TRUE. WAKE UP!

Do some research beyond picking and choosing articles that meet your biases. Read everything that follows it as well, not just the initial press.

You make HUGE leaps of logic and post them as if they are facts. Here are more of your leaps of logic that play fast and loose with the facts:

"After your derogatory rants I feel it is safer to stick mostly to quotes, but it is obvious to anyone with a smidgen of common sense that Apple plays fast and loose with the rules for financial gain, and then pays a small army of lawyers to get them out of difficulty."

I have yet to see you retract your claims of "Tax Evasion" which you made with ZERO evidence, or your claims that Apple lied on its AUDITED tax returns or on its AUDITED Financial Statements. Until you are willing to do that, you ARE a dishonorable liar. I am calling you what you are. You lie making statements you have no evidence to back up, and you refuse to recant or admit you made an error. That is a person without honor.

I find it amazing that anyone on FreeRepublic is on the side of the SOCIALIST TAX and SPENDERS in Europe who want to grab everything for themselves they can get their hands on and want to do it by RETROACTIVELY changing the tax laws and ignoring the treaties that established that their member countries had tax law and regulation autonomy.

I did not draw the conclusion. The conclusion was drawn by congress after a thorough investigation. Yes it was most likely a crime, but that is why Apple spends a gazillion dollars on lawyers... so they can skirt the law. It is sweet justice that in this European Union tax ruling they finally were called on their illegal activities. . .

So the difference between the financial statement they released to investors was off by a mere $4 Billion according to the Senate investigation. But it is easy to see how a million here and a million there and the addition gets a little screwed up.

SHEESH! No, it was NOT concluded by CONGRESS. This is what makes you an idiot. You don't know the difference between a research reported by Senators office staff and a Congressional Hearing and the vote they may or may not have taken. The committee staff's report is NOT taken under oath, Tim Cook's testimony and the evidence submitted WAS entered under oath and it REFUTED that staff report, proving its allegations WRONG! Evidence does count for something. SHEESH!

Had that subcommittee report been correct, Tim Cook and his auditors would be languishing in JAIL and subject to major fines. I've seen both. That report is NOT a report to "investors," it is a FINANCIAL REPORT to the Federal Exchange Commission, a part of the Federal Government which investors are free to see, and is also filed WITH Apple's Tax Return. They have to agree. Don't you know anything? Apparently not. And they DID agree.

If you'd bother to read the foot note on Page 39 where the article got its piece of misinformation from the subcommittee's report, which even the researchers obviously did not understand what they included, Apple's 10K FINANCIAL STATEMENT filed with the SEC footnoted the following:

"According to Apple’s 2011 10-K, the company had net excess tax benefits from stock based compensation which is the main reason for the difference between Apple’s current tax liability on its financial statement and the liability reported on Apple’s tax return. See Apple Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2011, at 63; Subcommittee interview of Phillip Bullock (5/15/2013)."

In other words, the 4.4 billion difference was being paid in a different, but completely legal FORM that particular year. . . but, oh, doesn't it make for a juicy story fodder for people who don't understand tax law? Someone, like you or the author of the article, who doesn't bother to read footnotes, or doesn't understand what they read. IRS got the total amount due, just not in that manner.

AGAIN, you, without any evidence, conflate something you do not understand and which is completely legal into a "crime." You are really a piece of work, fireman.

Look, idiot. Now you are distorting what I said. I did not say they were “MANUFACTURED” in Ireland.

I have not distorted anything that you have said; I quoted you and pointed out that you were being misleading for the umpteenth time during our discussion. You said, “All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland.” Any reasonable person would assume that you were implying that all Apple products were made in Ireland not that they were Chinese products that touched down in Ireland on their way to other parts of Europe so that they could fit into Apple's tax evasion schemes. It appears that you have taken a course in legalese directly from Bill and Hillary Clinton. If you lie about even the stuff that is easily verified it casts doubt on the rest of your lengthy obfuscations.

I have not drawn any conclusions myself about Apple's despicable tax evading behavior which clearly has reached a shocking new high even for soulless multinational corporations. Which of course is the primary reason why they have just been assessed a fine that is multiple times larger than any other fine in history. Ha, ha, ha!!! I have merely repeated what experts have written on the subject. Nearly all of what you have claimed are my conclusions have been in quotes with a link provided. But what has been written is both shocking and shameful.

You keep going back for OLD articles, 2014, now 2013. . . digging to find some dirt which is based on someone’s suspicions and theories, again not based on any evidence.

I have provided multiple links, the older ones were intended to show that this is a pattern of behavior that Apple has been engaged in for years. You have rejected every link with a variety of excuses, but here is one from yesterday from the New York Times a news outlet one would normally expect to find on Apple's side on just about everything:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/technology/apple-tax-eu-ireland.html

Here are a few noteworthy quotes:

“Europe’s competition enforcer said that Apple’s illegal deals with the Irish government allowed the technology giant to pay virtually nothing on its European business in some years. The arrangements enabled Apple to funnel profit from two Irish subsidiaries to a “head office” with “no employees, no premises, no real activities,” the commission said.”

“Apple paid only 50 euros in taxes for every million euros in profit during 2014. As part of its ruling, Europe demanded that Ireland recoup 10 years’ worth of back taxes, some 13 billion euros, or about $14.5 billion, plus interest.”

“The amount is a drop in the bucket for Apple, which has a total cash pile of more than $230 billion.”

“The United States government is an unlikely advocate. Politicians have berated Apple for paying too little by setting up complex and opaque tax structures. Officials have hit back against corporate mergers that allowed companies to move their headquarters to places like Ireland to take advantage of lower tax rates.”

“A United States Senate committee said in 2013 that Apple had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of 2 percent or less in Ireland.”

“The public scrutiny and the emergence of previously confidential information about Apple’s tax arrangements, in part, helped spark Europe’s own investigation into the issue.”

“Apple and other companies have also faced criticism for keeping large reserves of cash overseas. The money is not taxed at home until it is brought back to the parent company in the United States.”

Those are all quotes from the article. If you feel that you must go on another name calling tirade to address these quotes, you might think about addressing them to the New York Times and leave me out of it.

Apple over many years has established a pattern of lying and tax evasion that is shocking even compared to their competitors in the technology sector. Apple is run by a gang of pro-Hillary ultra-liberals that endeavors to trade the future of our country to add a few dollars more to their already bulging coffers. Your tirades and name calling has made it clear that you are a fan boy who has let your obsession with Apple products cloud your judgment.

Your purpose in every post in this thread has been to excuse the illegal behavior of a soulless multinational corporation which has been hell bent on defeating Donald Trump and electing Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. I find your shameless obfuscations and your repeated vicious insults to be more amusing than effective. And fellow Freeper, I do love you anyway. So lighten up, and thanks for the fun discussion!

In one of your posts you said that Tim Cook had no association with the Clinton Foundation. I thought that maybe this quote from Tim Cook himself might help clear up your confusion on this,

“For the hearing [about Apple’s tax practices in 2013], I’ve never testified in front of Congress before. So I called up [Goldman Sachs CEO] Lloyd Blankfein, because I looked back to say who’s done this before? I knew Lloyd and thought he’d be honest with me. I called up President Clinton. He knows a lot about the politics. I’d not met him through a political connection. I’d met him through the foundation. I went to Laurene, Steve’s wife. Laurene has the lens of knowing me and deeply understanding Apple.”

So the second person Little Timmy thought of calling after his best buddy Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, was Bill Clinton? But he assures us he hadn't met his buddy Billy Boy Wonder through a “political connection”; he met him through the “foundation”. Golly Gee Batman, I wonder what “foundation” he was referring to? I guess there must be a million foundations he could have met Bill Clinton through?

Isn't it wonderful to find out that all these globalists are so supportive of each other? And it is wonderful that you are so supportive of these poor guys that are picking up all this static from looting the USA.

For your reading pleasure... another article calling Tim Cook a contributor to the Clinton foundation:

“This summer, a third of her campaign fundraisers have been held by foundation donors, including film producer Harvey Weinstein, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and media mogul Haim Saban, who has donated between $10 and $25 million to the foundation.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-hillary-clintons-foundation-ties-raise-ethical-concerns/

So I am not sure why it is that you can not find any records showing that Tim Cook, Apple and other Apple associates are contributors to the Clinton Foundation? Maybe it is because Apple has more experience than any other organization in the world setting up dummy entities to hide the movement of funds to avoid paying taxes or for other nefarious purposes? Maybe you just were not looking closely or using the wrong search terms? Or maybe CBS has taken an abrupt turn and is now part of the vast right wing conspiracy trying to take down the Clintons and Apple? Or maybe you were just out and out lying? Which is the most likely?

In one of your posts you said that Tim Cook had no association with the Clinton Foundation. I thought that maybe this quote from Tim Cook himself might help clear up your confusion on this

No, fireman, ONCE AGAIN, you are distorting what I said. Here is my exact quotation:

"Neither Apple nor Tim Cook are among the listed donors to the Clinton Foundation, nor has Apple ever paid either of the Clintons to come and make a speech, nor were they among the major donors to the Democrats in the 2012 Election cycle. There were some small, minor donations from individuals associated with Apple and the Apple Employees Political Action Committee made donations, but NOT Apple."

Having no listing in Clinton Foundation donor listing they've released, nor having Clinton come speak at Apple or at an Apple event, IS NOT the same as having "no association with the Clinton Foundation" as you characterized my statement. (However, we do know that the Clinton Foundation is not above purging names from its donor list that are, shall we say, embarrassing to find there. We know they have done it in the past.)

It is, in fact, possible that Tim Cook did indeed make a donation to the Clinton Foundation, but it was not large enough to make the list of major or significant donors, or he made his donation as part of a group of donors which would be subsumed under the name of the group on the list. Frankly, I do not know.

Do NOT infer something in what I said that I did not say. You anti-Apple people are always putting words into what I write that I did not write. If you are going to disagree with what I write, use the words I actually wrote, not some other words you wish I had written to construct a Strawman for you to shoot down.

For all you or I know, Tim Cook may have met Bill Clinton at a Foundation event which Cook attended representing another group he is associated with, at a speaking engagement where Bill WAS the speaker, or some other relationship having to do with the Clinton Foundation in which both Bill Clinton and Tim Cook were both present. Although many of us were very suspicious of the purpose of the Foundation, just because of who they were, until the evidence started being revealed, the Clinton Foundation was mostly thought to be a beneficial non-profit, not a criminal enterprise. It was only when some enterprising and tenacious REAL journalists started turning over rocks and connecting some well hidden dots were we and the rest of the world to start learning the facts about what was really going on under Hillary's pantsuits and behind Bill's zipper.

However, the important statement here is that Tim Cook knew Bill Clinton OUTSIDE OF POLITICS, and then only peripherally, which supports what I was trying to tell you that Apple, for many years was essentially an apolitical entity even given the liberal Leanings of its leadership. In many ways, it still is.

I did not address your donation patterns you put up graphs about in an earlier post because it was late (or actually too early in the morning). . . But those had to do with Apple's efforts to enact STRONG ENCRYPTION LAWS for mobile devices, not generally about supporting just Democrats as you were implying. Notice that Republican Congressman Darryl Issa, who is NOT a supporter of Gay marriage, got a donation from Apple. Why? Because he is supporting Apple's initiative to back user privacy and strong encryption for mobile phones, tablets, and computers. Individual privacy rights. It is unfortunate, or perhaps fortunate, that there are fellow travelers in the Democrats who are also supporters of that too, but that was the test for those donations, not party line.

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