Apple to donate to Australian bush fire relief efforts

Apple will donate funds to ongoing relief efforts in Australia, where a dangerous combination of record temperatures, high winds and drought over the past two months set the stage for dozens of devastating bush fires.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in a tweet on Thursday extended sympathy to Australians impacted by the more than 100 fires that pock mark the landscape in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

"Our hearts are with those impacted by the Australian bushfires and with the courageous volunteer force fighting the unprecedented blazes across the country— please stay safe," Cook said in a tweet. "Apple will be donating to support relief efforts."

Cook did not specify how Apple will contribute, though the company has in the past donated funds to local non-profits and emergency service organizations during similar situations.

Australian firefighting agencies are currently battling a series of blazes across multiple states, a collective conflagration thought to be among the worst on record. The fires, sparked by extreme seasonal weather conditions, have destroyed towns, millions of acres of land and claimed the lives of at least nine people.

Australia's bush fires are taking a toll on local fauna, with recent reports estimating the decimation of some 30% of NSW's koala population.

The country declared a national emergency last week. Federal and state firefighters from the U.S. were sent to Australia to assist in quelling the wild fires this week.

Apple commonly responds to catastrophes and natural disasters with financial aid. In 2018 the company provided $1 million contributions for victims of the Kerala floods in India, relief efforts following the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, and Red Cross activity after the California wild fires and Hurricane Florence. Apple last donated to an emergency relief effort during this year's bout of California wild fires in October.

13 Comments

design_editor 13 Years · 14 comments

About 4 years ago

Sadly, this is not the type of help Australia needs from Apple. The company pays virtually no tax on billions of dollars of revenue from sales of its products and services in Australia. The avoidance of its tax obligations means that the Government cannot provide services to its citizens and most recently had cut 10s of millions from its fire services in the most affected state of NSW. We don’t need billionaires
or corporations throwing pocket change at problems. They need to honor their social contract of paying its tax obligations.

StrangeDays 8 Years · 12986 comments

design_editor said:

Sadly, this is not the type of help Australia needs from Apple. The company pays virtually no tax on billions of dollars of revenue from sales of its products and services in Australia. The avoidance of its tax obligations means that the Government cannot provide services to its citizens and most recently had cut 10s of millions from its fire services in the most affected state of NSW. We don’t need billionaires
or corporations throwing pocket change at problems. They need to honor their social contract of paying its tax obligations.

Source? Article from earlier this year cites apple paying 30% tax rate in Australia:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/apple-s-aussie-profits-grew-but-its-tax-bill-went-down-20190125-p50tnx.html

macxpress 16 Years · 5913 comments

design_editor said:

Sadly, this is not the type of help Australia needs from Apple. The company pays virtually no tax on billions of dollars of revenue from sales of its products and services in Australia. The avoidance of its tax obligations means that the Government cannot provide services to its citizens and most recently had cut 10s of millions from its fire services in the most affected state of NSW. We don’t need billionaires
or corporations throwing pocket change at problems. They need to honor their social contract of paying its tax obligations.

Always someone to find negative in an article....Love the glass is always half empty approach of some people.

Honestly, Apple could literally pay $10's of Billions of dollars in taxes in each country every year and people would still bitch about Apple avoids paying taxes. If Apple is avoiding taxes, then maybe the Government (not Apple) fix it! There's obviously loopholes your government can fix to avoid this if it is indeed true.

entropys 13 Years · 4316 comments

pays virtually no tax on billions of dollars of revenue from sales of its products and services in Australia.
It is this ignorance of the difference between revenue and profit (indeed the constant conflation of the two, particularly on the ABC and Fairfax/Nine pubs) that is yet another simple demonstration of the appalling state of the education system in Australia today. The National Curriculum must die.

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

StrangeDays said:

design_editor said:

Sadly, this is not the type of help Australia needs from Apple. The company pays virtually no tax on billions of dollars of revenue from sales of its products and services in Australia. The avoidance of its tax obligations means that the Government cannot provide services to its citizens and most recently had cut 10s of millions from its fire services in the most affected state of NSW. We don’t need billionaires
or corporations throwing pocket change at problems. They need to honor their social contract of paying its tax obligations.

Source? Article from earlier this year cites apple paying 30% tax rate in Australia:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/apple-s-aussie-profits-grew-but-its-tax-bill-went-down-20190125-p50tnx.html

This would have been the more proper link as it's an Appleinsider article.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/01/25/apples-australian-tax-bill-falls-to-164m-despite-rising-profits

There's finally an international effort being made to address tax avoidance strategies undertaken by large multinational companies. Apple Australia for example, just like many other local subsidiaries of global corporations, pays a selling, general and administrative expense (referred to as SG&A) to its parent company which in Apple's case is currently located in the tax haven of Jersey off the French coast. That's one way it reduces its taxable income in the country where the sale occurred, and a really effective strategy employed by other big techs and pharma and not just Apple.

Now back to the topic....
First it was fires in the Amazon, and now in Australia. Not a good year for the the forests and even millions in donation from big tech won't fix it.