Sox First

Ireland has given the world many things: Guinness, the Blarney Stone, U2 and James Joyce to name a few. Add to that tax evasion for high tech companies.

Bloomberg reports that Google paid only 2.4% overseas tax over the last few years, thanks to two tax dodging techniques: the "Double Irish" which involves it shuttling foreign profits through its Irish operation to Bermuda, involving two Irish companies (hence: Double) and the "Dutch sandwich" which involves setting up a middle company in the Netherlands, with which Ireland has favourable tax agreements.

This is costing US taxpayers billions of dollars at a time when the US government is struggling with a $1.4 trillion budget deficit. For a company that claims to do no evil, Google's actions sound pretty bad.

Google has gone on the defensive, claiming everyone does it. It's shot off an emailed statement to The Independent to that effect. The company says: "Google's practices are very similar to those at countless other global companies operating across a wide range of industries, such as technology, pharmaceuticals and retail. Google complies completely with the tax laws of all the countries in which we have operations. As a result, we make a very substantial contribution to local and national taxation and provide employment for thousands of people globally."

So every other company does it, therefore it must be okay. Google's tax cheating strategy is technically legal but it's damn hypocritical. Their billions of dollars in revenue are coming courtesy of US taxpayers. So much for don't be evil!

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