Apple’s Hometown Pays $70 Million, and Counting, to Keep HQ

Apple Inc.'s hometown of Cupertino, California, has given almost $70 million in sales-tax collections back to the company over the past 20 years, with the amounts sharply increasing in recent years, public records show.

The payments have been made under a little-known tax incentive deal struck in 1997, when Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy, and that’s likely to endure until at least 2033. Payments to Apple have continued as the iPhone maker has passed $1 trillion in market value, and reached a high of $6 million in the most recent fiscal year, according to the records.

Dozens ...