Some cursory Googling indicates that the last few years Apple has managed to keep its taxes paid at a rate of between 18% and 19%.

For comparison, the Republican tax plan currently being debated in Congress is capping at 20% or 21% (depending on which day's negotiations you're looking at). And I personally am paying a rate around 36%.

I wonder what rate you think Apple and other large companies should be paying, and how much the rest of us would have to pay to give them that cut.

I think Apple and other corporations should pay zero in income taxes. Because taxing investment makes no sense. Let alone sextuple-taxing it like we do today.

And your googling is in accurate. Apple pays 24.6% in taxes.

And when Apple’s owners make their share of that profit through capital gains and dividends, the government will take another cut.

You mean when they pay the capital-gains tax rate, which is much lower than the rate us ordinary mortals pay on our income?

The poor oppressed billionaires and even, yes, the mere multi-multi-millionaires, do not have my sympathy. I doubt you're going to change that.

Uh, this isn't about sympathy. I'm just pointing out that once you add the levels of taxation, it's about the same as the income tax rate. What looks like favorable treatment is just the government taking multiple cuts of the profits, where for wages it just takes one bigger one.

This isn’t about billionaires. A poor retiree in CA with Apple stock is losing close to 60% of their dividends to taxes:

The reason capital gains rates are lower than individual income rates is partial compensation for the effects of inflation. If inflation is 2% per year and your investment increases 20% over 10 years, you lost money but still owe taxes. During high inflationary periods this effect kills the stock market, because taxes make investing becomes a guaranteed loser.

The reason dividend rates are so low is that the money has already been taxed multiple times in its way to the shareholder. Foreign, State and Federal Corporate income taxes. Your 20% dividend rate is just the tail end of about 60% in total taxes, including state income taxes too.

"A poor retiree in CA" doesn't own AAPL. Not directly, not through a 401(k) or other vehicle. They're living off Social Security payments.

And retirement investment vehicles, smartly managed, start moving out of stocks and into less volatile securities as you reach actual retirement. So if that retiree is still in AAPL post-retirement, there are other issues going on.

Even poor retirees own stocks, and they pay huge tax rates on their dividends. You can’t deny that.