While Apple is known not to spend as much money lobbying Washington as other large corporations, it seems as though the company is on track to significantly increase this spending amount, by doubling it to $4 million this year.
Apple’s increase in spending comes at a time where the U.S. government has been much tighter on the company, having recently grilled Tim Cook and his company for allegedly having avoided paying $9 billion in U.S. taxes by keeping $100 billion in oversea accounts, despite companies like General Electric keeping 108 billion dollars overseas.
While Apple spent $2 million on lobbying in 2012, Microsoft spent $8.1 million and Google spent $16.5 million in the same year.
Apple is now hiring lobbyists to argue its case on corporate tax reform, stating that it will never bring its money back stateside until the tax system is reformed to the point where it would be a logical choice. Apple’s chief lobbyist, Catherine Novelli, worked for President George W. Bush’s administration as a top trade official.
Even with its relatively small amount spent on lobbying, it will be interesting to see if one of the world’s most powerful companies will be able to make any significant change to America’s tax system.
