Carl Levin

Apple Inc. keeps those intellectual--those economic rights, right?

I think we should take the President up on his offer to do corporate tax reform.

You shifted your intellectual property there. That is your choice.

Thank you very much, Senator McCaskill.

Neither one of those companies files an income tax with the United States.

There is no effort to vilify anybody. We are trying to shine a spotlight on the practices of a big company.

Has AOI filed a corporate income tax return in the last 5 years?

I do not consider deferral to be a sham or abuse in any kind of way.

AOI has received about $30 billion over the last 5 years, but has not filed a corporate income tax return.

But there is no income--there is no tax paid on the money itself that has been sent to Apple.

Where are we? How can we possibly be in a situation today where the law permits income to be allocated to a company resident nowhere and not be taxed anywhere?

I mean, if they can do it, why couldn't every multinational do the same thing?

It seems to me that is inconsistent with the premise of deferral because the company has no tax residence anywhere else that is making a tax claim.

Now, when my children were younger--I have four adult boys, but when they were younger, they were big into magic, and they might characterize the check-the-box regs as making things go, 'Poof.'

And if Apple can create companies with no tax residence and create profits in those companies, and if that is going to be tolerated, couldn't all U.S. multinationals in effect do the same thing--eliminate the corporate tax for our…

So I think one question for Members of the Committee and ultimately Members of Congress to consider is whether it makes sense for a company like Apple to be able to enter into an agreement that transfers its crown jewels to a foreign…

This Subcommittee is about investigating a Tax Code that is not working for the American people, is not working for businesses in this country.

As a practical matter, you would agree that it is functionally managed and controlled in the United States?

I about fell off my chair when I read that because, when I think about tax gimmicks, certainly some of the techniques that Apple uses could, in general usage of the word, be considered 'gimmicks.'

Avoiding paying taxes in this country to me is not right. The American people know it is not right.

I would say that what we really need to do is apologize to Apple, compliment them for the job creation they are doing, and get about doing our job.

The President says he wants to close them. The President, when he was a Senator, co-sponsored much of the legislation that would have closed at least some of those egregious tax avoidance tactics.

Why should those revenues that would come from closing those corporate tax loopholes not be used for any number of extremely important goals from deficit reduction to ending sequestration?

Why not close those egregious, unjustifiable loopholes, that are costing our Treasury so much money, and use that revenue to end sequestration this year and next year?

A bunch of these loopholes that are being used to drain our Treasury, to ship money offshore, serve no economic purpose.