OnyeaboAduba

money quote

"As is often the case in Washington, the scandal isn’t what’s illegal -- it’s what’s legal, in this instance tax- avoidance systems with names like the Double Irish and the Dutch Sandwich. As detailed in a Bloomberg Businessweek investigative story last May, Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX), which makes the antidepressant Lexapro, sells almost 100 percent of its drugs in the U.S. and cuts its U.S. taxes dramatically by attributing the bulk of profits to a law office in Bermuda.

Similarly, Google reduced its income taxes by $3.1 billion over three years by shifting income to Ireland, then the Netherlands, and ultimately to Bermuda. Microsoft has used a similar arrangement. Records in the Cayman Islands and Ireland show that Facebook is setting up such a structure too. "