taxes

Apple's taxes on overseas profits last year: Less than 2 percent

Apple paid less than 2 percent in taxes for profits generated outside of the U.S. in the last fiscal year.

The company paid $713 million in taxes on $36.87 billion in foreign profits, according to its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Sunday Times was the first to spot the figure.

In comparison, Apple paid $12.26 billion in federal taxes for profits generated in the U.S., and $1.06 billion in state taxes.

Apple, like many other global companies, generate much of its profits overseas where tax rates are more favorable. But the … Read more

Facebook comes under fire for alleged tax evasion in U.K.

The U.K. is accusing Facebook of dodging taxes in 2011. According to the Guardian, tax experts said that the tech company reported lower sales figures than estimated and explicitly set up its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, to reap the benefits of lowered tax incentives for corporations.

"The U.K. is being taken for a ride," Tax Research U.K. director Richard Murphy told the Guardian. "Facebook is taking standard practice for these IT companies to a new high, or low, depending on how you look at it."

Facebook paid $313,345 to the U.K. … Read more

Silicon Valley rougher to business than Seattle, Austin -- report

Silicon Valley's economy seems to be recovering more quickly than the rest of the nation's, with employers hiring and venture capitalists offering sunny predictions. There's even a new reality show based here.

It may not last. A new analysis of how business-friendly states are -- released today by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation -- shows that California is way at the bottom. The Golden State ranks a dismal 48 out of 50.

"States do not institute tax policy in a vacuum," said Scott Drenkard and Joseph Henchman, the study's authors. "Every change to a … Read more

YouTube cedes to Turkey and uses local Web domain

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

Congressional report dings Microsoft, HP for avoiding taxes

Maybe they needed something to occupy their attention before the presidential candidates go head to head, but a U.S. Senate committee says that two of tech's biggest companies have worked assiduously to reduce their tax bills.

Big surprise.

Still, it was worth the time of congressional staffers who today published an extensive report in advance of an afternoon Senate hearing today on loopholes in current tax law.

"Major U.S. corporations are increasingly earning their profits here but shipping them overseas to avoid paying the taxes they owe," Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman … Read more

iPhone 5 preorders indicate hot demand

Friday's tech news roundup didn't plan ahead:

A rush of iPhone 5 preorders online have pushed back shipping dates at Apple and wireless carriers for at least two weeks. Some stores, like Wal-Mart and Target, are also offering iPhone 5 preorders for in-store pickup. The initial supply of iPhones for Apple preorders went in less than an hour, which is much faster than years prior. It shows that either demand is way up for this model, or Apple didn't have as many available for the preorder crowd (or a mix of both). We won't know for … Read more

Calif. to Amazon sellers: We're coming for those sales taxes

California's tax collectors are preparing to open a new front in their battle to collect sales taxes from Amazon.com customers.

A deal inked last year between Amazon and Sacramento means that, for most items shipped from the online retailer's warehouses, sales tax will be collected at checkout starting tomorrow. But, as CNET reported earlier this week, that doesn't apply to hundreds of thousands of items "fulfilled" by Amazon from its warehouses on behalf of other sellers.

That means a New York camera shop could have inventory located in an Amazon warehouse outside of San … Read more

Which state you'll pay more for an iPhone 5 in and why

Thousands of units of the new iPhone 5 and other popular smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S III will likely fly off California store shelves the last week of September, and many of the consumers purchasing them will probably do a double take at the total on the receipt.

That's what happened to CNET reader Debi Scott, who read my story on how much sales tax from new iPhone sales could add to local government coffers (JP Morgan also took note of the iPhone 5's potential as an economic booster shortly thereafter) and thought I might be understating the case. Scott told me how she purchased two iPhone 4S smartphones last year for $199 each at an AT&T store in Visalia, Calif., and was charged more than $100 in sales tax.… Read more

Amazon shoppers will squeeze through Calif. tax loophole

Amazon.com's agreement with Sacramento officials means that, starting Saturday, it will collect sales taxes on items that it sells to California residents.

But Amazon will continue to not collect taxes on hundreds of thousands of items that it lists for sale on its Web site, stores in its warehouses, and packages for quick shipment to California residents.

Those orders -- called "fulfilled" by Amazon -- amount to a tax loophole that has left Sacramento tax collectors a tad unhappy. California sales tax rates are among the highest in the country, topping out at 9.75 percent, … Read more