There's a simple solution that would never be adopted
Apple's margins aren't anywhere near 50%, but yes a tax rate on revenue that caused them to pay the same tax bill in the US that they do now would put every supermarket into bankruptcy.
The simplest solution would be to tax on a cash basis - you have x dollars coming in and y dollars going out, your tax is based on x-y. No worrying about tracking when "revenue is recognized" - if they pay you over three years for something that revenue is recognized over three years as you receive it. Ditto for depreciating capital expenses and the like - if you write a check for the full amount of a big expense that would normally be depreciated over some years all it means is that your taxable income would be much lower that year, but would be higher in the remaining years, and it would all equal out in the end.
You don't even need to care about whether something is a "legitimate business expense". If the company bought it, it is a "cost" and deducts from revenue. Anything they pay to another company they file a form with the IRS saying how much. Anything they pay to an employee (even a jet purchased for the CEO) they file a form with the IRS saying how much. The total in those forms has to equal how much they claim they spent in their tax return. That would make tax collection super simple and make gaming things a lot more difficult. The IRS would get its money either way, it would be up to the shareholders to decide if buying a jet for the CEO was a good use of the corporate treasury.
This isn't a problem free approach, but one of the biggest reasons why it would never happen is that accountants/tax attorneys would lobby heavily against it as it would put a lot of them out of work. And politicians would hate it even worse, because a tax system so simple would make it difficult to justify tinkering with. If they can't tinker with the tax system they would see bribes^H^H^H^H^H^H campaign donations from corporations plummet!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
