IRS Auditing Google 328
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by
Soulskill
from the searching-for-the-dollars dept.
from the searching-for-the-dollars dept.
theodp writes "Bloomberg reports that the IRS is auditing how Google shifted profits offshore to avoid taxes. According to Bloomberg, Google cuts its tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a technique that allocates profits to a unit managed out of a law firm in Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax. In 2009, the most recent year for which records are available, this subsidiary collected 4.34 billion euros (about $6.1 billion) in royalties from a Google unit in the Netherlands. A spokesman for Google, whose stated mission is 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful,' called the IRS probe 'a routine inquiry' and declined to comment further."
The Poorest Pay the Most Taxes (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm waiting to find out that I paid more than Google in taxes.
It's not just Google, here's a place to start [theatlantic.com]. The problem is larger than that as some of the largest companies (Boeing, Ebay, GE) spend more money lobbying politicians than paying taxes [huffingtonpost.com].