Google sheltered $2B from taxes in 2011

Google avoided about $2 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2011 by shifting $9.8 billion in revenues into a Bermuda shell company, almost double the total from three years before, filings show. The tax shelter, legal under the U.S. tax code, could further fuel the outrage spreading across Europe over corporate tax dodging. Governments in France, the U.K. and Italy have been looking into the low effective corporate tax rates paid by multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks. Google reported a tax rate of 3.2% on the profit it said was earned overseas last year, even though most of its foreign sales were in European countries where corporate income tax rates range from 26% to 34%. The E.U. estimates that its cash-strapped member governments lose out on €1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) of revenue a year from (legal) tax avoidance and (illegal) tax evasion.