Did Apple go through all sorts of outrageous tax avoidance contortions in order to dramatically reduce its tax liability? Absolutely. But in doing so, did Apple break any actual laws? Probably not.

Congress can get as huffy as it wants in accusing Apple of being a tax cheat, but Apple's only playing by the rules that Congress has laid down. The real scandal here is our ridiculous corporate tax code that allows this sort of shit to happen. All the time.

Yeah, Apple jumps through hoops to avoid paying taxes. But at over $6 billion in 2012, Apple claims to be the largest corporate income tax payer in the US. Meanwhile, dozens of giant US corporations (including Boeing and Paccar) consistently pay a negative federal income tax.

So yeah, Apple deserves to be excoriated for its accounting tricks. But it is Congress that is the enabler of all this corporate tax avoidance, and Congress that ultimately deserves the blame.