The Cupertino City Council on Tuesday gave final clearance to Apple’s shimmering flying-saucer shaped headquarters plan. The authorities have finally voted and decided to reduce Apple’s annual tax break by 15 percent.
When Apple was on the verge of collapse and was struggling hard to revive in 1997 the city agreed to help Apple maintain its health by returning 50 percent of the taxes generated each year from Apple’s business-to-business sales.
The rebate now under the new agreement has been reduced to 35 percent which means that Cupertino residents will now pay Apple – which has a cash hoard estimated at $100 billion and net sales of $156.5 billion during the last fiscal year – only $4.4 million. While as per the old agreement the residents would had to pay Apple $6.2 million.
Mayor Orrin Mahoney on Tuesday said that “There will be short-term and long-term impacts from this new development”.
“And as part of our negotiations, this change was just one way that Apple could continue to help us out in the long-term. This will give us some additional revenue, which will be nice to have.”
“We’re eager to see it happen. Go for it,” Mahoney said.
According to design specifications, the projected four-story main building will have about 2.8 million square feet of space and will be able to accommodate 12,000 employees.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in February that the building is expected to get completed by 2016.
