Apple's tax practices are drawing the attention of some in Congress after a scathing New York Times report over the weekend
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) revealed in an interview on Morning Joe today that he was "livid" about the news that Apple had managed to pay a tax rate of just 9.8%.
The senator went on to say that he has reached across the ideological aisle and asked Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) to partner with him "to take a look" at how Apple has managed to reduce its tax burden by so much.
The Times report detailed the elaborate bookkeeping system that Apple pioneered including routing much of its profits through subsidiaries in countries with lower taxes. As the report points out, other companies have since followed some of these strategies.
Coburn suggested in the interview that he would probe more into the broader practice of big corporations relying on tax havens to reduce their tax burden, rather than investigating Apple in particular.
Regardless, we're going to go ahead and assume that Apple doesn't want to become the poster child for the many problems with America's tax code. We can't wait to see what kind of letter Apple writes in response to this one!
Here's the video of the full interview. Skip to the 10:37 mark to hear Coburn's remarks on Apple:
