上周末，美国总统奥巴马（Obama）在展开东南亚之行前，致电多位商界领袖，苹果公司（Apple）CEO蒂姆•库克也在名单中。

    上周，奥巴马会见了十几位商界CEO，讨论所谓的“财政悬崖”问题。周末他又联系了另外四位，其中就有库克。

    白宫没有披露他们谈论的话题，但也不难猜。

    奥巴马在连任竞选过程中，曾多次谈到要堵上给输出就业的美国公司带来了好处的税收漏洞。

    几乎已将所有制造生产环节输出至亚洲的苹果公司不遗余力地游说美国政府，希望能获得临时性税收减免，以便它将海外积累的一些现金“返回”国内。换言之，可在美国国内使用，无需支付联邦税款。

    这对苹果是个多大的问题呢？

    根据上个月这家公司提交给美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的10-K表格，这家公司的现金和有价证券总额已达到了创纪录的1,213亿美元，其中有826亿美元是在海外。

    苹果公司的海外利润支付的税率极低——2012年支付税款7.13亿美元，有效税率不到2%。

    相比之下，苹果公司2012年在美国支付的联邦和各州税款为133亿美元，联邦税率高达35%。

    2%和35%的差距，或许可以称之为“漏洞”。何时以及如何补上这个漏洞，或许是美国总统和蒂姆•库克想要讨论的内容。

    译者：杨智

    One of thebusiness leaders President Obama called last weekend before he began his Southeast Asia visit was Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook.

    The President met with a dozen CEOs last week to talk about the so-called fiscal cliff, and he reached out to four more over the weekend, including Cook.

    The White House did not disclose the subject of their chat, but it's not hard to guess.

    During his re-election campaign, Obama talked a lot about closing tax loopholes that reward U.S. companies for exporting jobs.

    Apple, which has shipped almost all its manufacturing work to Asia, has lobbied heavily for a tax holiday that would allow it to "repatriate" some the cash it has accumulated overseas -- i.e. spend it in the U.S without having to pay federal taxes on it.

    How big an issue is that for Apple?

    Well, according to the Form 10-K the company filed with the SEC last month, of the record $121.3 billion in cash and marketable securities it has accumulated, $82.6 billion is parked overseas.

    Apple pays extraordinarily low tax rates on its foreign earnings -- $713 million in 2012 at an effective rate of less than 2%.

    This compares to the $13.3 billion Apple paid in state and federal taxes in the U.S. in 2012, where the federal tax rate is 35%.

    The discrepancy between 2% and 35% is what you might call a loophole. When it gets closed -- and how it gets closed -- is something the President and Tim Cook might want to talk about.