How Apple scores its lower tax bill

By Jeanne Sahadi
 @CNNMoney

May 22, 2013

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Apple is one of America's most profitable companies. And it pays a substantial income tax bill to the U.S. government -- by its own account, $6 billion in 2012 and an estimated $7 billion this year.

But many tax experts and lawmakers say Apple's tax bill should be bigger. A lot bigger.

The concern is that Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), while complying with U.S. laws, is nevertheless taking advantage of loopholes in the tax code to shift a substantial amount of income to offshore subsidiaries in low-tax countries. The result is billions of dollars in profits every year that go untaxed.

Apple is hardly the only American company to minimize its offshore tax bite. But it has become a poster child for it.

In Apple's case, the focal point is its subsidiaries in Ireland, where the company faces a maximum tax rate of just 2%. That's well below the 35% top rate in the United States and even well below Ireland's top statutory rate of 12.5%.

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