Apple sells $12B worth of bonds in bid to alleviate global tax bill

Tim Cook would rather go in your wallet for petty cash than have to pay the taxman.

Apple started selling as much as $12 billion worth of bonds on Tuesday — the tech giant’s fifth multibillion-dollar debt offering in three years — in a bid to tamp down its global tax bill by potentially billions of dollars.

The iPhone maker, which is the largest company in the world, has borrowed about $51 billion from investors since mid-2013, even though the company has $215.7 billion in cash reserves — more than the US Treasury — according to its latest filings.

Apple is looking to “test the waters and see what kind of appetite there is for bonds,” Donald Ellenberger, senior vice president at Federated Investment Management Corp., told The Post.

One potential reason for the major cash raise? A lower tax bill.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., has been under greater scrutiny by the European Commission for parking about $64 billion in profits since 2004 in subsidiaries based in Ireland, which has a lower tax rate.

The Cook-led behemoth is looking to sell as much as $2.4 billion in bonds in euros, Swiss francs and Japanese yen, which would allow the company to buy back shares from foreign investors, according to the Financial Times.

The stock buybacks funded in foreign denominations would be out of reach of Uncle Sam.

The rest of the bonds, which are denominated in US dollars, are in a range from two to 30 years maturities.

As part of the offering, Apple sold $1.5 billion in “green bonds” for environmental initiatives.