Also what is in their annual report isn't necessarily accurate anyway, so don't just throw that link at me.
Apple wasn't even reporting its U.S. taxes accurately, either, the Senate subcommittee found. Its annual report disclosed it paid much higher U.S. taxes than it actually paid to the IRS. To investors, Apple said it paid $6.9 billion in U.S. taxes in 2011. But it actually only paid the IRS $2.5 billion, according to its tax return.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com...
Err-hunh. Yeah. That's why Apple has been fined for not paying their taxes. And no, Apple hasn't said they paid those taxes, they said they provisioned that amount for taxes. IOW they stated what taxes they would have to pay for all of their profits, but only actually paid out to the IRS that which they owed by not repatriating foreign profits. Which is not only legal, it is required by tax accounting rule APB 23 unless you plan to invest those foreign earnings abroad permanently.
The only difference to most other companies is that Apple doesn't pretend to keep it there in their statements (even if they don't actually want to without a repatriation holiday), while others pretend to do that to make their profits seem higher (even if they then actually have to bring back those earnings). Recent example is eBay which "paid" over 300% taxes first quarter last year because they repatriated "permanently invested" foreign earnings of $9 billion.
Are you actually going to blame Apple for the cluster-fucked up tax (reporting) laws in America, just because they are not only smart enough to make a profit, but because they also actually pay taxes?
BTW, Apple reports how much taxes they paid (in total) under the all to obvious moniker "Cash paid for income taxes, net". Which for FY 2014 comes to $ 10,026 million - most, but not all as federal income tax.