Villanova law professor, tax expert, testifies in Apple tax hearing

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


J. Richard Harvey, a tax expert at Villanova University School of Law, testified Tuesday in front of a Senate panel exploring Apple's tax strategies, saying "I suspect that what Apple has done is within the bounds of what's acceptable in international tax law." But he also said he nearly 'fell out of my chair" when he read that Apple said it did not rely on tax gimmicks.

Of course, the definition of "gimmick" is open to interpretation. My experience is that large corporations spend as much as they need to in order to legally minimize tax bills, as long as the ROIs from those expdenditures are adequate. And most corporations consider it their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to do so, again as long as it is clearly within the law.

Harvey joined the Villanova School of Law as Distinguished Professor of Practice in 2010, according to Villanova's website. He has extensive high level experience at Treasury and the IRS under several administrations, as well as being a retired Managing Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was one of two academic tax experts to testify in front of the panel, the other being Stephen E. Shay of Harvard Law School.