Wehrwolfen
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- May 22, 2012
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Obama offers Cabinet position to businessman with billions in offshore profits [Reader Post]
By: DrJohn
No, not Mitt Romney.
Google has paid nearly nothing in taxes over the last few years:
Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.
Googles income shifting involving strategies known to lawyers as the Double Irish and the Dutch Sandwich helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.
Googles income shifting involving strategies known to lawyers as the Double Irish and the Dutch Sandwich helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.
Google has sheltered about $10 billion offshore- in Bermuda:
Google Inc. (GOOG) 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.
By legally funneling profits from overseas subsidiaries into Bermuda, which doesnt 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 Googles total pretax profit in 2011.
The increase in Googles revenues routed to Bermuda, disclosed in a Nov. 21 filing by a subsidiary in the Netherlands, could fuel the outrage spreading across Europe and in the U.S. over corporate tax dodging. Governments in France, the U.K., Italy and Australia are probing Googles tax avoidance as they seek to boost revenue during economic doldrums.
Last week, the European Unions executive body, the European Commission, advised member states to create blacklists of tax havens and adopt anti-abuse rules. Tax evasion and avoidance, which cost the EU 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) a year, are scandalous and an attack on the fundamental principle of fairness, Algirdas Semeta, the ECs commissioner for taxation, said at a press conference in Brussels.
By legally funneling profits from overseas subsidiaries into Bermuda, which doesnt 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 Googles total pretax profit in 2011.
The increase in Googles revenues routed to Bermuda, disclosed in a Nov. 21 filing by a subsidiary in the Netherlands, could fuel the outrage spreading across Europe and in the U.S. over corporate tax dodging. Governments in France, the U.K., Italy and Australia are probing Googles tax avoidance as they seek to boost revenue during economic doldrums.
Last week, the European Unions executive body, the European Commission, advised member states to create blacklists of tax havens and adopt anti-abuse rules. Tax evasion and avoidance, which cost the EU 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) a year, are scandalous and an attack on the fundamental principle of fairness, Algirdas Semeta, the ECs commissioner for taxation, said at a press conference in Brussels.
So what does Obama do with someone like that? Well, he offers him a Cabinet position:
Mr Schmidt, 57, was offered the job of Treasury or Commerce Secretary or a new Secretary of Business slot, according to the Washington Examiner.
An anonymous strategist for the Democrats told the newspaper: Nobodys better positioned for a Cabinet job, if he wants one.
Obama blasted Romney for offshore accounts:An anonymous strategist for the Democrats told the newspaper: Nobodys better positioned for a Cabinet job, if he wants one.
Gibbs blasts Romney for overseas accounts
Obama camp blasts Romneys foreign accounts
Obama For America blasts Gov. Romney for offshore accounts
Mitt Romneys offshore accounts draw more fire
If offshore accounts are bad why does Schmidt get a pass? As always- the money:
Mr Schmidt played in a key role in the re-election of President Barack Obama last month, helping to oversee Googles $700,000 donation to his campaign.
Read more:
Obama offers Cabinet position to businessman with billions in offshore profits [Reader Post] | Flopping Aces