Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
Huh? I don't think a single company can be targeted by tax law, and there is nothing in the proposal that I see to their detriment. They would benefit from the lower corporate tax rate and lower rate in repatriated assets just like all the other companies.
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I was referencing the irrational aspect to investing... and the PR association of Apple (unfairly) being labeled as a villain in the game of tax sheltering - which is a sentiment that has started to creep up in the media.
Paradise Papers: Apple defends use of tax haven for overseas cash - Nov. 7, 2017
There is not a logical association to damage to Apples long term profitability... rather the intangible association of an American company getting labeled as (insert negative association here) due to their logical path of using the tax system to their advantage.
The fear is... suddenly some percentage of Apple support moving another direction because Apple is that guy who avoids taxes (a statement that's easy to respond to with and number of rebuttals: "Everyone does that", "as a shareholder of course I want them to do that!", etc...). Seeing a company as a human... is a very human thing to do. People love apple when it's rising, but a tide could easily swing the other way... and that could be very damaging. All large companies have PR sectors tracking these intangibles. Think Facebooks constant struggle to be at the center of our lives while walking this very fine line of collecting on it's users to make a profit through Ads... while hoping to sweep under the rug how they are for seemingly infultrating our lives in ways we don't even fully understand... ig... targeted Ads of things you want to see that you were just talking about to a friend 5 minutes ago (did they hear me through my mi on my phone? Did I give them permission to do that?). Apple is at a bigger risk here than I think many realize. Their ties have grown international and they are very much balancing this game of keeping their shareholders happy, as well as their customers. On this board, most are both (and I'd expect the focus to be on logical aspects of profitability; rather than on the PR aspects that ebb and flow)... but in the public sector, the vast majority of their profits coming from sales to people who aren't also shareholders. There isn't as much support for "nah, we love them!" ... people are more interested in the next best thing... and drama in a PR sense is addictive in the news and social media world. Only takes one bad association to start the snowball rolling. I see it as a risk... a hard one to effectively quantify, but one I think that'll play into the future prospects of Apple as it approaches first to cross the $1T valuation. They will become a media target... I think.
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