Could Knowledge Workers Avoid Taxes - Apple Style?

Tax Avoidance for the Rest of Us?

Could knowledge workers use a similar tactic employed by Apple to avoid US taxes?

Knowledge workers sell their collective knowledge to a union in Ireland to which they pay hefty fees out of their earnings.

The union owns their offices, cars and houses to which they pay a tax deductible rent. The union pays out annually to its US members in Ireland. They can recirculate the money in Europe or bring the balance back for U.S. taxation.

See how Apple dodges taxes on $74 billion in revenue.

Visual Daily: The One Graphic that Explains Apple's Tax Blarney

How Exactly Does Apple Avoid Taxes?

[Announcing: OSX Mountain Blarney - Source Code Algorithm]

1. Create Fake Company - Apple Operations International (AOS) - in Ireland where corporate taxes <2 b="" nbsp="">and "sell" U.S. Apple's Intellectual Property to AOS. 

2. AOS charges Apple US massive licensing fees for most Apple products sold.

3. Manage "Irish" AOS Company out of Nevada as Braeburn (Apple) Management (seriously!)

4. [Money actually stored in NY branch of Irish bank.]

5. Circulate overseas sales revenue to another fake Irish company - Apple Sales International (ASI)

6. Pay no taxes on $74 billion

Note: Also explains the disappearance of rainbow from original Apple logo.

Coming next: Global Tax Avoidance Strategy for Today's Knowledge Worker 

Visual Daily: The One Graphic that Explains why Yahoo Wanted Tumblr

Welcome to our visual news blog - where we try to capture the essence of the news in a visualization.

 Why Tumblr Matters

Teens use Tumblr more than Facebook (Source c|net)

 Visual Snapshot of Tumbler

Worldwide Users

Growth Profile

User Profile

Survey of Social Media Users

• City more than suburban or rural
• Facebook still dominates
• Hispanics and then African Americans prefer visual over text
• Skews: Young, female, less affluent and some but not too much college

Trump Puts the Clown in Crowdfunding

Thanks to Donald Trump and the extraordinary spectacle played out at Trump Tower yesterday, we just got a glimpse of crowdfunding as a nightmare: people crammed against each other as they clawed the air for MONEY. 

As Trump put it, he wanted to take crowdfunding away from "Brooklyn hipsters." That he did, as a money-maddened crowd sprinkled with street people, brayed for bucks.

The site he is promoting, Fundanything.com, which is actually managed by his old pal, Learning Annex's Bill Zanker, borrows from Indiegogo.com. It accepts all comers and charges 9% if you don't make your goal and 5% if you do (vs. Indiegogo's 9% and 4%). 

The site is open to all comers and there is no community follow-up or any kind of vetting of deals. 

The only bright side to this picture is that Trump is offering to fund a choice few projects and so the publicity may bring some attention to other projects on the home page. 

If you are sorry you missed yesterday's spectacle, do not fret, the two expect to do live events around the country on the theory that it will bring more attention to the projects. The reality is likely to be more money stampedes - the ugly realization of our jobless recovery and our fascination with entrepreneurship-for-everyone.

Nevertheless, it is part of a trend. Last week, we reported that Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran joined the board of RockthePost.com, a pioneering equity crowdfunding site featured on our podcast, The Entrepreneur Show. 

So - do we continue to be amazed at the miracle of crowdfunding - the wisdom of the public as it puts its trust in the ideas of a good few? What the JOBS act is about to turn it into a wealth-sharing vehicle for the rest of us?

Or, are we about to see it transformed into a freakshow to amuse the rich whenever they feel like sprinkling bills before beggars? A massive joke where people compete against each with sob stories or half-baked ideas in search for suckers. A high tech way of washing your windshield?

The answer depends on which side of the velvet rope you were standing last Wednesday at Trump Tower.

Additional stories in the Verge and Techcrunch.