Apple seeks tax haven in Nevada

Now enriched with hefty cash reserves thanks in large part to booming iPod sales, Apple Computer isn't about to let California tax collectors take too big of a bite.

The Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered firm has taken an unknown portion of its portfolio and set up shop in the veritable tax haven of Nevada, according to a recent BusinessWeek Online report.

The arid state has earned popularity among businesses because it has neither a corporate income tax nor a capital-gains one and shares no information with federal tax collectors, the report said.

Apple is calling its new endeavor Braeburn Capital--named, aptly, for a variety of the parent company's fruit--and plans for the Reno, Nev. firm to function as a "regional treasury office." Precise plans for managing the cash stores and short-term investments, which nearly doubled to $8.7 billion in 2005, remain unclear.

Apple's certainly not the first to find the move to Nevada alluring. According to figures in the BusinessWeek report, at least three dozen companies--the largest of which was online shoe distributor Zappos.com--moved their operations out of California during 2004.