Panel: Apple uses firms outside US to avoid taxes

Monday, May 20th, 2013 | Finance News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes, a Senate investigation has found.

The world's most valuable company is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes, according to the report issued Monday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The strategies Apple uses are legal, and many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying U.S. income taxes on profits they reap overseas. But Apple uses a unique twist, the report found. The company's tactics raise questions about loopholes in the U.S. tax code, lawmakers say.

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Broadway’s biggest theater sold to British group

Monday, May 20th, 2013 | Finance News

NEW YORK (AP) — Britain's biggest theater group has reached across the Atlantic Ocean and bought Broadway's biggest theater from Live Nation Entertainment for about $60 million.

Ambassador Theatre Group said Monday it has acquired The Foxwoods Theatre, the current home of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark." The theater has about 2,000 seats.

The acquisition makes the Foxwoods the 40th venue now owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group. The group, which owns several central London theaters including the Savoy Theatre and Trafalgar Studios, bought Live Nation's UK theaters for $147 million in 2009.

In a statement, the company said it hoped to keep the "Spider-Man" musical at its 42nd Street home "for a very long time." The show is still regularly topping $1 million in revenue a week.

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United restarts 787 flights after grounding

Monday, May 20th, 2013 | Finance News

United Airlines is again flying the 787, four months after smoldering batteries forced the plane to be grounded worldwide.

A United 787 flight took off from Houston on Monday morning and landed in Chicago.

United Continental Holdings Inc. has six 787s. Battery problems on planes owned by other airlines prompted the grounding. Federal authorities cleared the planes to fly again on April 19.

United plans to use its 787s on routes from Houston to other U.S. cities this week. It plans to restart international flights on June 10.

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its grounding order last month, and Ethiopian Airlines resumed 787 flights on April 27.

Boeing never found the root cause of the smoldering batteries, but it has said that it believes its fix covers all possible causes.

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