Intel Corp (INTC)

[RobertG]

Samsung Electronics Co. is sitting on a cash pile 58 percent bigger than Apple Inc.’s war chest. The tax man has a message for South Korea’s biggest company: “Use it or lose it.”

The government of President Park Geun Hye this month published initial plans for a 10 percent tax on what it says are excessive fund hoards that should either be spent on wages and investment or distributed to shareholders. The levy, which needs lawmakers’ approval, could affect Samsung, which had the equivalent of $60 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of June. Apple had $38 billion, Bloomberg data show.

“We’re trying to give a signal here,” Moon Chang Yong, the head of the tax bureau at Korea’s Finance Ministry, said by phone on Aug. 19. “It’s time to help stoke domestic demand. We want zero revenue from this. The aim is to create a virtuous cycle and recirculate corporate earnings back to households.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-20/samsung-told-by-tax-man-to-use-apple-topping-cash-korea-markets.html