Google used a popular tax trick to shelter $19.2 billion
Just how much money do tech companies shelter from taxes ? Quite a lot, according to the Dutch. Newly published Netherlands regulatory filings show that Google shielded €15.9 billion (about $19.2 billion) in 2016 using the popular "Dutch Sandwich" tax trick, saving it about $3.7 billion in taxes. The maneuver involves shifting revenue from an Irish subsidiary to a Dutch firm with no staff, and promptly moving the funds to a Bermuda mailbox owned by another Ireland-listed company. And this practice isn't slowing down -- Google moved 7 percent more cash through this approach in 2016 than it did a year earlier. Google defended the practice in a statement to Bloomberg , reiterating its position that it "pay[s] all of the taxes due and [complies] with the tax laws in every country we operate in around the world." The statement is technically accurate, as it's honoring local laws. However, the statement sidesteps the main concern: that companies like Google,...