California wants a bigger piece of Cupertino's tax earnings from Apple

More likely, California wants to distribute sales tax to the home tax district of the buyer. If Apple aggregates all sales to Californians in the Cupertino tax district, they are cutting the other tax districts in the state out of that one percent city, and local district taxes as well.

RickDawg said:

More likely, California wants to distribute sales tax to the home tax district of the buyer. If Apple aggregates all sales to Californians in the Cupertino tax district, they are cutting the other tax districts in the state out of that one percent city, and local district taxes as well.

Not of the "buyer", but the local tax district of where the online transaction took place. In CA, sales tax on online sales made inside the State is taxed at the rate of where the transaction took place and not of the buyer home location. It's no different than if a person living in SF drove down to the Apple Store in Cupertino and made a purchase. The sales tax on that purchase is based on Cupertino local sales tax, not the SF sale tax of the buyer's home district. Out of State online purchases are handle differently.

So the question is, are all CA online purchases handled inside Apple HQ or in Cupertino at all? Most likely not. Apple probably handle online sale transactions on sites outside of their HQ and Cupertino, but credited Cupertino with the sale. When in reality, the tax credit should be where Apple actually handled the transaction. It might be a warehouse in San Jose or Sacramento (Apple main CA distribution center is in Elk Grove).  I kind of doubt that Apple HQ is where they keep their stock of online products and they are shipped from there. If the purchase is shipped from the nearest Apple Store or Apple warehouse that have it in stock, then the sale tax should be base on the location of that Apple Store or warehouse and credited to those local districts. 

https://biz.crast.net/apples-local-tax-arrangement-with-hometown-comes-under-fire-2/

>At issue is the company’s treatment of online sales. Under California law, a local portion of the sales tax goes to the location where the transaction occurs, not the customer’s location.<

https://www.warehouseautomation.ca/news-notes-1/2020/10/9/apple-to-use-retail-stores-as-distribution-centers-for-faster-deliveries-8tj2z

I kind of doubt that Apple HQ is where they keep their stock of online products and they are shipped from there. If the purchase is shipped from the nearest Apple Store or Apple warehouse that have it in stock, then the sale tax should be base on the location of that Apple Store or warehouse and credited to those local districts. 

The last 2 iphones I've purchased from apple.com have shipped to me direct from China.

So if the transaction took place on a server in Oregon there would be no Sales Tax? Or maybe on a server in unincorporated Inyo County, would that be where the tax was booked? What if a company booked their online sales on servers in multiple locations?
No Apple chose to book them based on their US headquarters and worked a tax cut from the city council. The rebate is a bit shady. The article makes it seem that Cupertino will be the one taking the hit so I hope Apple can find a way to hero them out.

Seems like a pretty dodgy deal in the first place.