Google's evil moving of $60 billion in profits through Ireland and Netherland to avoid U.S. taxes

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes
By Jesse Drucker

Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

Google’s income shifting -- involving strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich” -- helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. “We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 percent.”

The U.S. corporate income-tax rate is 35 percent. In the U.K., Google’s second-biggest market by revenue, it’s 28 percent.

Google, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine, uses a strategy that has gained favor among such companies as Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The method takes advantage of Irish tax law to legally shuttle profits into and out of subsidiaries there, largely escaping the country’s 12.5 percent income tax.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html

[thereismore]

1. WTF I thought Google was OK. Just WTF. Bing anyone? nt

[RoseMead]

3. Bing's Microsoft.

Are they any better than Google, ethics-wise? :shrug:

[SocialistLez]

13. I don't think so...Microsoft tries to avoid taxes too.

[Brickbat]

2. For a population that supposedly thinks more and more that taxes are "evil,"

they're just following their "do no evil" mission, right?

[madmax]

4. Damn, and I thought

teh Google was my friend. I consult with Dr. Google no matter what my Dr. says.

Didn't w just love the google?

[Starry Messenger]

5. Eventually they are all Evil©

The need to always expand profits pretty much demands this kind of behavior. It's capitalism.

[SocialistLez]

14. +1

[unblock]

6. it's hard to avoid using the known strategies that everyone else is using

i'm quite certain that people like bill gates sr. and warren buffett pay as little taxes as they can under current law even while they advocate for higher taxes for themselves. the thing about taxes is that they're SOCIAL. few people just individually chip in extra to the treasury because they think it's the right thing to do. there are far more people who would be willing to chip in more IF everyone else did.

so yet another company uses a common (for multinational corporations) strategy that's apparently perfectly legal.

that doesn't make google evil, that just reinforces how evil and stupid the LAWS are that permit this crap. the worst you can say about google is that they passed up an opportunity to be saintly.

let's fix the law and put blame where it belongs -- on politicians, mostly republican

[Lucky Luciano]

16. Exactamundo! +1. nt

[begin_within]

7. Google is stupid and irrelevant anyway

All you get from a search are a bunch of useless links to stuff you didn't want, and then buried on page 8 of the search results finally something halfway useful. I can't believe people still rely on such idiotic and irrelevant sites such as Google, Wikipedia and Snopes for basic information and come away with the illusion that what they got is accurate, current and relevant.

[cbdo2007]

8. Now everyone go to Google and enter into the search are "google tax cheats"

That will be fun to see it come up on the "hot topics" page.

[MyUncle]

12. I did Google "Google Tax Cheats" Honestly what I got is below:

Advanced search No results found for "google tax cheats".
Results for google tax cheats (without quotes):

Search ResultsTaxProf Blog: Using Google Earth to Find Tax Cheats

August 5, 2010. Using Google Earth to Find Tax Cheats. Google Earth Fortune, Greek Government Uses Google Maps to Find Tax Cheats: When you do a Google Maps ...
taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/.../using-google.html - CachedGreek government uses Google Maps to find tax cheats - Google 24/7 ...

Aug 2, 2010 ... Frankly, it's surprising it took Greece this long to figure out this way of using Google Maps. When you do a Google Maps or Google Earth fly ...
tech.fortune.cnn.com/.../greek-government-using-google-maps-to-find-tax-cheats-with-pools/ - CachedAFP: Lifestyle monitors ferret out Philippine tax cheats - Google

Sep 11, 2010 ... The tax cheats often give themselves away by conspicuous consumption aimed at announcing to the world that they have arrived, according to a ...
www.google.com/.../ALeqM5gpfq-IT0UtUzhKTcXnwTQu8h6W3A

[Bitwit1234]

9. And google censures their searches...If you google

for information negative about a republican they take you around the block and don't end up giving it to you. I am starting to go to bing if I want results.

[maxsolomon]

10. every corporation has to do this - its the nature of the beast

its called being 'responsible' to your shareholders.

[maxsolomon]

11. doop

nt

[Uzybone]

15. They all do it, turn your eyes to Congress

they are the beasts that allow this to happen, and have allowed it to happen for decades.

[MattSh]

17. Distort much?

That $60 billion is the total avoided by all corporations, not Google.

That doesn't make it right, but you're letting others off the hook by claiming Google is responsible for all of this.