In an interview last weekend with 60 Minutes , Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company’s use of the legal overseas tax maneuvering that effectively keeps tens of billions of dollars in would-be American tax revenue out of the country.

In a short back and forth with host Charlie Rose, Cook gave a very legalistic—though accurate—answer as to why Apple does not repatriate its mounds of cash. Cook said that Apple pays more taxes in the United States than anyone else.

After all, it is the most profitable company in America and the second-most in the entire world.

Here’s the transcript:

Charlie Rose: How do you feel when you go before Congress and they say you're a tax avoider? Tim Cook: What I told them and—what I'll tell you and—and the folks watching tonight is we pay more taxes in this country than anyone. Charlie Rose: Well, they know that. And you should because of how much money you make. Tim Cook: Well, I don't deny that. We happily pay it. Charlie Rose: But you also have more money overseas, probably, than any other— Tim Cook: We do. Charlie Rose: —American company? Tim Cook: Because as I said before, two-thirds of our business is over there. Charlie Rose: Yeah, but why don't you bring that home, is the question? Tim Cook: I'd love to bring it home. Charlie Rose: Why don't you? Tim Cook: Because it would cost me 40 percent to bring it home. And I don't think that's a reasonable thing to do. This is a tax code, Charlie, that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age. It's backwards. It's awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It's past time to get it done. Charlie Rose: But here's what they concluded. Apple is engaged in a sophisticated scheme to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion in revenues held overseas. Tim Cook: That is total political crap. There is no truth behind it. Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.

Cook’s answer is technically correct: Apple does pay every tax dollar it owes. But global laws create an enormous financial incentive for Apple to keep its profits overseas using sophisticated subsidiaries and offshore chicanery that ultimately vastly lower its effective tax rate. Apple is not alone in this practice: many of its large corporate counterparts, including Amazon, and even Starbucks, engage in such behavior.

However, it is worth remembering that in 2012, a British parliamentary committee chided executives from large tech firms for employing such tactics. Margaret Hodge, the public accounts committee chair, slammed Google’s northern European operations chief, saying, "We're not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral."

As Samuel Brunson, a tax law professor at Loyola University Chicago, told Ars in October 2015, "Individual taxpayers don’t have a strong incentive to lobby for change," he said. "Meanwhile, Apple has a $59.2 billion incentive to lobby for the law not to be changed."