What did Apple do wrong?

Members of Congress called Apple executives to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to answer for an alleged scheme to avoid paying taxes. What was the alleged scheme? The company makes money overseas, and some Senators want to get their hands on the cash.

What did Apple do wrong?

A Senate subcommittee accused the company of “shifting” profits from the U.S. to other countries and avoiding paying taxes.  But Apple pays its US taxes. Apple's earnings aren’t “shifted,” because it’s not income that’s earned here in the US.  If you go to your local Apple store and buy an IPad, the profits don't "shift" overseas.

So the Senate was in an uproar about profits eared from sales not made in the US.  The US business tax rate is the second highest in the world, and these tax hungry politicians want a piece of every dollar earned that they can get.  It's disgusting.  As long as we keep growing government and having that government try to suck every tax dollar they can from every individual and business, companies like Apple will continue to keep their money overseas, and they would be absolutely justified in doing so. 

Don't blame business, as the Senate is doing, don't vilify and intimidate a law abiding company.  The villian here is big government and our tax code. As Rand Paul stated during the hearing, we shouldn't be attacking a company for following the tax code and trying to do right for it's shareholders:

"Instead of Apple executives, we should have brought in here today a giant mirror, okay? So we could look at the reflection of Congress, because this problem is solely and completely created by the awful tax code. If you want to assign blame, the committee needs to look in this mirror and see who created the mess."

Don't blame companies for following the tax code.  If we want more tax revenue in the US, let's make the US a more favorable climate for business.  Growing business revenue in the US would do that, while creating more jobs, getting people off the government dole, and getting the economy working again.  But our government doesn't want to do that, they want to intimidate and tax. 

Which type of economy do you think would help the US more, one where companies make money here and expand here and hire here, or one where money is made overseas, with employees hired overseas?  Clearly it's the former, and our government is trying to make us into the latter, and it's not working.