sabby
Herald
How Apple (and other tech companies) Sidestep Billions in Taxes
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it's called creative accounting my friend. Hire the costliest lawer/accountant and most of the illegal things will be converted to perefectly legal things. alas we poor..
The article makes it sound like they are doing something morally wrong, my comment was directed towards the article and not the OP.
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Ill say its more towards planning.ANy idiot who wants to set business if he has the money to hire someone who helps him to show way to minimise money going out than its nothing wrong.And to be frank Apple wont be the only company in the world doing so.
Its the amount of cash which this company has made the author to go after it.
Its the amount of cash which this company has made the author to go after it.
So, how many people are going to stop buying Apple products after reading this??
If you want to stop buying products from a company because they are finding ways to evade taxes, then you won't be buying any product from any company. Businesses are by nature insincere. Businesses can be legit, but there are no businesses that are moral, ethical and sincere. They very fact that you they sell you some thing for more than it costs them to make is the foundation of any business and forms the basis for why a business cannot be sincere. You can only compare the degree of insincerity.
When the Satyam incident came out, people quite readily condemned Satyam and Rama Linga Raju without realizing that a lot of companies indulge in such practices. This is how businesses are run. Had the economy not been in the condition it was in, it would not even have come out. In Raju's shoes, most people would have simply grab what ever they could and have vanished. It is even commendable that he had the guts to come clean with it before the employees and the public at such a state.
yashvisent
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yashvisent
Explorer
Gryph0n
Contributor
When I pay Rs. 200 to the "concierge" desk at my office to submit my Tax forms to the govt tax office, it might actually only cost the person 50 bucks in fuel costs. But to me its a bargain, because I see my time as more valuable than the cash I paid up. Its not always about the raw costs involved, but about the value to buyer. Heck, I might even use the services if price was 500. But if it was Rs. 2000, then its no longer of value to me.
So I disagree on businesses being "insincere" on pricing part based on raw cost price alone. Businesses are free to set whatever price they want, I am free to decide whether I value it at that price or not. Basically a free market should sort it out. Just because I am paying more than cost price to manufacturer, that doesn't necessarily make them "insincere".
No one runs a business unless they make a decent amount more than they spend. It doesn't matter whether the service is more value to you considering the time aspect or whether you want to avail it or not. It may cost you more if you want to do it yourself, but it doesn't change the fact that they are charging more than they spend which is what I am defining as insincere. I am not saying that it is a bad thing, but it is a fact that you have to accept.
Lets say you ask your office boy to bring something that you know costs 50Rs and he comes back and says sit cost 200Rs, would you call him insincere? I bet you would.. You wouldn't care if the time spent is a lot more worth to you than 200Rs. It is in practicality the same with business. After all even the office boy is merely exploiting a business opportunity. You merely accept the fact that it is alright to give 200Rs to the concierge for something that they spend 50Rs for because you believe that your time is more valuable. They on the other hand probably collect 200Rs from a 100 people making them 20k and then spend 50Rs to submit all 100 forms. That is the nature of business.
Lets say you ask your office boy to bring something that you know costs 50Rs and he comes back and says sit cost 200Rs, would you call him insincere? I bet you would.. You wouldn't care if the time spent is a lot more worth to you than 200Rs. It is in practicality the same with business. After all even the office boy is merely exploiting a business opportunity. You merely accept the fact that it is alright to give 200Rs to the concierge for something that they spend 50Rs for because you believe that your time is more valuable. They on the other hand probably collect 200Rs from a 100 people making them 20k and then spend 50Rs to submit all 100 forms. That is the nature of business.
Gryph0n
Contributor
If the percieved value of the product or service is acceptable to customer, then there is no insincerity involved. Except if the business tried to project the percieved value as its cost price.
If the office boy says the item cost 50, and his time and effort were worth 150, then there's no insinserity involved. It is possibly bad financial sense, but not necessarily morally bad. On the other hand if he bought rs 50 item and says it cost 200, that would be insinserity.
The concierge is making a killing, as you have pointed out. But the percieved time value of those 100 people would be more than 20k. So its still a fair transaction.
As you've mentioned, no one will run a business to just re-circulate his capital. There has to be a profit motive, but I don't necessarily see a conflict with morality.
I have to admit, in the practical world, 90% of businesses will try to get orders from factors other than percieved value alone. That would be immoral. Witness the Tatra scam of today, or the Bofors guns from the 80's. In both cases, the products are themselves decent, but since the business was done via kickbacks, the transaction can be considered immoral.
In the case of concierge, there is no insincerity. In case of the Tatra deal, its clearly insincere. But I cannot agree that all business transactions are insincere by default.
I've run out of arguments
^^ It is a merely a fair transaction in your eyes, not a sincere one. As I said, with business you can only measure the relative degree of insincerity. Lets say you go to the market and bought some thing for 500/- and you thought its a good price. Next day you find that every other seller in the market is selling the same thing for 200/-. You will immediately call the first guy a cheat. lets say a week later you find someone else is selling the same thing for 100/-? That makes the price of every one else unfair.
And yeah, Insincere is not the same thing as immoral as morality is merely a perspective.
And yeah, Insincere is not the same thing as immoral as morality is merely a perspective.
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