Apple’s latest tax avoidance ruse: Tech giant issues $12bn in bonds so that it doesn’t have to move money out of low-tax offshore havens to pay dividends

Apple has sold $12billion in bonds as part of another scheme to lower its tax bill.
The tech giant got itself further into debt even though it has $215billion in the bank, more than the US Treasury.
California-based Apple sold the bonds under a complicated scheme which is reportedly designed to ensure that it does not have to pay US tax on its profits earned abroad.

The money will be held outside of the US and will be used to pay dividends and buy back shares from foreign investors.
But as the cash does not flow back to America, Apple will avoid paying the 35 per cent US corporation tax.
Apple has used this tactic before and the bond issue is its fifth such debt offering in three years.

The company now has a total of £37billion in long term debt despite being the second most valuable firm in the world.
According to Moody’s credit agency, Apple avoided paying £6.3 billion in taxes in 2012 alone using this strategy.
But in December, the tech company’s chief executive Tim Cook told 60 Minutes: ‘Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.
News of the Apple bond issue came just hours before the company announced it would reject a U.S judge’s order to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym had ordered Apple to help the FBI break into the device belonging to Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the December 2 attack that killed 14 people. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, died in a gun battle with police.
The ruling by Pym, a former federal prosecutor, requires Apple to supply software the FBI can load onto Farook’s county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature that erases the phone’s data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it.
The FBI wants to be able to try different combinations in rapid sequence until it finds the right one.
But Apple chief executive Mr Cook called the ruling an example of government overreach and said ‘this moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.’
However, despite the news Apple’s shares were up 0.2 per cent when markets opened.