Government

Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with the company's finance boss Peter Oppenheimer and Tax Operations head Phillip Bullock, earlier this morning took the witness table at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill to face U.S. senators who grilled the three men on Apple's offshore tax practices.

This also means today was the day many Apple bloggers got to become experts on tax reform. We live-blogged the whole thing, but if you had better things to do than sift through the back and forth between Apple execs and senators John McCain and Carl Levin, Apple's got you covered.

Right on cure, the Cupertino firm has published Cook and Oppenheimer’s opening statements that detail its now widely reported stance on a comprehensive U.S. corporate tax code reform...

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has been summoned to testify in a Senate hearing on offshore tax practices, now has to do something no other Apple CEO did before him: take the witness table at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.

Apple ahead of the hearing published a 17-page written testimony which details its push for a fair tax reform: it should be revenue neutral, Apple writes, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the U.S.

It's not clear why the U.S. Senators singled out Apple as many other companies don't repatriate the money earned overseas due to the steep 35 percent tax. It's important to note that what Apple and others are doing isn't illegal. Moreover, Apple is compelled to do what is in both their and their shareholders' best interest.

Anyway, you've hopefully grabbed your popcorn because things are about to get quite interesting if not downright messy. Go past the fold for a blow by blow...

Tomorrow will be a pretty big day for Apple CEO Tim Cook, finance boss Peter Oppenheimer and Tax Operations head Phillip Bullock as the three men are scheduled to appear in front of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation and give testimony regarding the company's creative approach to tax avoidance.

Apple ahead of the hearing published a lengthy document on its web site which pushes for tax reform on argument that America's tax system undermines the nation's competitiveness in the "digital economy" because the current tax code was written for the "industrial era." As expected, some U.S. senators beg to differ and think Apple is just being creative in its tax avoidance strategy.

This is bound to get more complicated when Tim Cook & Co. find themselves in hot water explaining to U.S. Senators how the company sidesteps U.S. taxes. Get your popcorn out...

Ahead of Tim Cook's appearance in front of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation tomorrow, Apple has released a lengthy statement regarding its company tax practices and other items that will be used in its testimony.

Remember, last week we told you that Cook was expected to testify at a senate hearing this Tuesday on "offshore profit shifting," following Apple's move to take on domestic debt, rather than use its offshore cash, to avoid $9 billion in taxes...

Yesterday, word got out that Tim Cook would be testifying at a senate hearing next week over Apple's tax practices. The hearing was called after the iPad-maker took on billions in debt to fund its shareholder return plan, rather than paying taxes on its offshore cash.

The move reportedly saved the Cupertino company around $9 billion in various tax charges, bringing it to the forefront of an ongoing debate about the legality of offshore tax evasion. But in a recent interview, Tim Cook says that Apple isn't doing anything wrong...