Apple CEO Tim Cook is defending Apple’s tax practices in front of the US Senate today, but it looks like one Senator is completely behind Apple.
Read next: Does Apple pay tax? | Why doesn’t Apple pay more tax: Complete guide to Apple’s tax affairs
We love this series of tweets (below) sent by Senator Rand Paul defending Apple and its tax practices.
Randal Howard “Rand” Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky and a member of the Republican Party, according to a search on Google, although 9to5Mac describes him as a notable Tea Party leader. He took to Twitter before Cook even went in to testify in front of the Senate.
Tweets include: “If you want to chase companies like Apple away, continue to vilify them. Congress should be giving Apple an award today”.
And: “If there is anyone to blame here it is not Apple, it is Congress and the tax code it created”.
This screen shot of his tweets was forwarded to us by a reader, but it appears that the story first broke on 9to5Mac.
There is live video of the testimony on 9to5Mac.
Apple on Monday released its head honcho’s testimony which deals almost exclusively the relatively dry subjects of Apple subsidiaries, the company’s corporate structure, and its broad suggestions for overhauling the federal tax system. It begins by stressing that as one of the largest companies in the US, Apple provides a huge benefit to the economy.
Apple strenuously asserts that it pays every cent it owes, both to the US government and to the governments of other countries in which it does business. This is despite news that Apple admits that it uses five subsidiaries based in Ireland: Apple Operations International (AOI), Apple Operations, Apple Operations Europe, Apple Sales International and Apple Distribution International. The senate is particularly interested in what Apple is doing at these mysterious subsidiaries. There is more information about what the senate inquisitors are going to ask Apple about in this Fortune report.
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Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.