Report: Apple legally sidesteps billions in taxes

Google Inc. avoided about US$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. By legally funneling profits from overseas subsidiaries into Bermuda, which doesn’t have a corporate income tax, Google cut its overall tax rate almost in half. The amount moved to Bermuda is equivalent to about 80 percent of Google’s total pretax profit in 2011.

By Patrick T

Gadget giant Apple is avoiding billions of dollars in taxes by setting up small offices around the world to collect and invest the company's profits, according to The New York Times.Saturday's report said an office in Reno, Nevada, where the corporate tax rate is zero, was one of many that the California-based technology giant uses to legally sidestep state income taxes on some of its gains.California's corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent.

Apple CEO Tim Cook charmed the Senate today, testifying on the company's tax avoidance practices. The most interesting part of the story wasn't on the Senate floor, however.

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It's tax time, and most Americans are trying to figure how much they owe the IRS. Still, many corporations and wealthy individuals have already prepared for the big day by assiduously spending money in deliberate ways to minimize their tax liability.  The result is billions in lost revenue for the government every year. 

Using an unusual global tax structure, Apple has held billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries to pay little or no taxes to any government, a Senate report on the company's offshore tax structure concluded on Monday.