Network. really the only criticism i have for the whole dealcy think they sold it for too little. blogging platforms have huge, huge potential and they have fantastic engagement as well. so if you look in the future, could tumblr have sold for not 1 bnt $1 billion but tens of billions? matt says this was very bittersweet. this kind of platform, you look in the future, it could be very, very successful and for advertisers, too. we know there is a lot of adult content on tumblr. should users expect big changes? he was a little bit awkward about that answer. i thought maybe it was because i m asking him about the porn problem in front of his mother. what he said was nothing s going to change. those guidelines are strict. but i think it is going to take time. people post a lot of times illegal material on tumblr. now it is part of a big public company. you just can t ignore that now.
Is 35%. but many companies don t pay that. they don t pay that because within all of these books. within all of these words, within 74,000 pages are scores, hundreds, thousands of loopholes for companies, and companies don t pay the top tax rates, including apple. this week, a top senate committee grilled apple. they wrote a scathing report that said they use subsidiaries in ireland to avoid paying taxes. all legal because of these books behind me. senator john mccain coauthored that. america s tax system is broken and uncompetitive and i have long supported efforts to modernize it. however, i will not use that position as an excuse to turn a blind eye to the strategies used by apple. but apple s ceo defended his company. we pay all of the taxes we owe every single dollar.
We not only comply with the laws, but we comply with the spirit of the laws. we don t depend on tax gimmicks. we don t move intellectual property offshore and use it to sell our properties back to the united states to avoid taxes. apple isn t doing anything illegal. it s simply doing what every u.s. company does, taking advantage of the loopholes that congress itself created. it s a point that rand paul made in one of the hearing s most fire breathing moments. i frankly think the committee should apologize to apple. i think the congress should be on trial here for creating a bizarre and byzantine tax code that runs into the tens of thousands of pages for creating a tax code that simply doesn t compete with the rest of the world. so this is that tax code, and paul went on to say that congress doesn t need to be having a hearing. it needs to look in the mirror. it needs a mirror because it s
Pay higher taxes, or have the government take on more debt while apple defers its taxes. i have a column that breaks down how apple is causing your taxes. you can draw that connection? the connection between complicated and not very complicated tax strategies that keep a company s tax bill low and my tax bill where it stands now? and here s the simple way to think about it. imagine if instead of having your taxes taken out of your check before you got it, you could keep that money and pay the government 30 years from now. if you invested that money at 3%, it would be two and a a half times as large in the future. you would actually make money off the tax system. that s what apple and other big companies do. the tax system is a profit center, and indeed, they called it a profit center. apple s jean is here with me, and i have to say, when i
Certainly this discussion will only get louder and more interesting over the next few weeks. thanks, anna. thank you. some in government want to take a bigger bite out of apple. it is past time for american corporations like apple to reorganize their tax strategies, to pay what they should and invest in the american economy. i frankly think the committee should apologize to apple. is this a greedy company, a broken tax system? the truth about big corporate tax loopholes next. u 8