Tech company Apple has been highly successful since its formation in the 1970s, but over the years, their lack of philanthropic services for their local community has been disappointing, if not downright despicable.

Andrew Shinjo

According to Fortune, Apple is the most profitable company in the Fortune 500 with a reported profit of $53.4 billion in 2015, but Apple only donates $5,000 annually to De Anza, the only college in Cupertino, as well as one of the top community colleges in the country.

With the recent decrease in enrollment at De Anza, and the lack of adequate funding from the state, investment in education is needed now more than ever. Corporate tax evasion exacerbates the problem too, and Apple is the worst of them.

Apple uses shady tactics to cowardly dodge taxes which could massively contribute to schools like De Anza. Instead, we are patronized, forced to make needless, tough budgetary decisions while being continuously told that we just need more incoming revenue.

According to the New York Times, Apple is the pioneer of a corporate accounting technique known as the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” through which it avoids paying basic taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands, and then to the Caribbean.

Based on a recent study by a former Treasury Department economist, without the use of off-shore accounts, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States would’ve likely been higher than $2.4 billion.

If corporations like Apple are going to continue this unethical and unpatriotic practice of corporate tax dodging, they should have the decency to help their local communities that are struggling for money.

Two months ago, when the flood struck San Jose , resulting in $73 million worth of damage, many organizations including local professional sports teams, auto dealers, Kaiser Permanente, labor unions, Chipotle, Wells Fargo, Safeway and Comcast, among others, donated to help the victims, but tech companies Apple, Google, and Facebook did not bother to help even when they were contacted.

De Anza gave Apple the opportunity to debut the original Macintosh here at the Flint Center in 1984, and many De Anza students go on to become future Apple employees; yet the last time Apple donated computers to De Anza was about 20 years ago.

While Apple does conduct some philanthropic services for the local community, De Anza and our local community does not receive enough benefits from Apple considering the amount of taxes they are not paying. If students are expected to worship Apple, beginning from grade school until adulthood when they pray to land a job with the company that actively hindered their schooling facilities, Apple should eagerly be ready to reciprocate that love.