Google is 100% Hypocritical By Paying 2.4% Tax Rate

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | October 21, 2010 | Peter Flaherty

[jazusamo]

 

According to Jesse Drucker of Bloomberg today:

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.

Google’s 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.

Of course, Google executives were among Barack Obama largest campaign contributors. CEO Eric Schmidt stumped for candidate Obama, and he and other senior executives contributed $150,000 to help pay for the inaugural celebration.

Obama rails against “loopholes” that allow corporations to escape taxes on foreign earnings. He demonizes bankers and he wants to raise taxes on “the rich.” In reality, Obama is the best friend the wealthy have ever had. His tax hikes will not impact the very rich very much because they can arrange Google-style tax avoidance strategies. Obama has bailed out Wall Street where buyout artists like KKR (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) exploit something called a 754 election, which produces ultra-low tax rates.

Instead of soaking the rich, Obama is draining the upper middle class. The professional and managerial class of this country will never be rich but will soon see at least half of their income taxed away. Obama has offered an implicit, Putin-like deal with the rich: you will be left alone if you do not stand in the way of my plans for socialism for everyone else.

Google is no stranger to hypocrisy. Its data centers consume huge amounts of electricity, but it is at the forefront of “green” initiatives that will constrict supply and raise electricity rates for ordinary consumers. When the company was encouraging its employees to drive fuel-efficient cars, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page bought a Boeing 767-200 “party jet,” which burns about 1,550 gallons per hour.

I am all for lower corporate tax rates, as long as they are the same for everyone. Too bad Google hasn’t embraced that.

Related:

Support for Obama Pays Off for World's Creepiest Company

House Dems Block White House Witness in Google Email Breach

White House Emails Show More Extensive Improper Contact With Google

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon and donate or become a monthly donor!

[J Edgar]

Google is 100% evil! Why you might ask? Well becasue they have no guiding principle except to exploit and profit to the highest bidder. Their greed is far beyond doing business. Their social ethic amount to nothing more than devour as much as possible, They will sell out privacy fr pennies, not a dollar. Scumbags from the top! JMHO

[NoLibZone]

Typical liberal tax dodgers.

If you love this nation you will not use google.

[Cacique]

btt

[GeronL]

They have friends in the White House.

It’s your taxes that get raised.

Meanwhile Obama will be attending a $30,000 per plate fundraiser at the home of a Google VP.

[arista]

I have no problem with businesses trying to pay as little in taxes as they can.

I do have a problem with businesses that advocate for higher taxes while trying to minimize their own taxes far below the levels they advocate for everyone else.

[rmlew]

I'd blog this (and the fact that Google ignores its own rules on punishing Googlebombers if they are leftists helping Democrats). However, I'm worried that they declare my blog offensive on blogger, or even delist me. Heck, my phone might even stop working for all I know.

[ApeStyle]

I agree it’s hypocritical, but for $3.1 billion I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing.

[jazusamo]

Exactly...Obama picks the ones he doesn’t consider evil and those include Google and Soros, crooks all.

[4rcane]

bufffet, gates, eric are big supporters of obama. Billionares support socialism, because they’re always excepted from the harm plus it protect them from competition

[4rcane]

bufffet, gates, eric are big supporters of obama. Billionares support socialism, because they’re always exempted from the harm plus it protect them from competition

[The Antiyuppie]

“I have no problem with businesses trying to pay as little in taxes as they can.”

This is the fiduciary duty of the officers of the company - to pay any more than is legally required would be a betrayal of the trust of the shareholders.

Well run corporations are not inherently good or evil.

[JRandomFreeper]

Was it legal to reduce taxes in that manner?

Did the company create weath by investing capital?

Not saying I agree with everything Google does, but if it's legal, the place to complain is DC. That's where the real problem is.

Corps like Google wouldn't flock to DC if the FedGov hadn't grown past it's legitimate limits.

/johnny

[Sprite518]

This leads to a bigger question. Why do big successful companies with lots of money, such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, etc... become liberal?

My guess is that once they are towards the top theses companies do not want competition. So they try to eliminate it by making it harder for start up companies.

[Dapper 26]

As much as I despise Google for their liberal “preaching”, I cannot fault them for using the current tax loopholes to save on taxes. There is no implication that they have to pay more taxes than they are required. It is OUR problem that there is no incentive for Google to stay in the US with their money. I fact, why don’t we lower the tax on Google’s foreign holdings to attract them to bring their money back to the US?

[Kellis91789]

“Well run corporations are not inherently good or evil.”

No, but they are certainly preyed upon by governments at every level. Everybody should remember that corporations do not get to vote in elections. Instead, in self defense, they are forced to spend millions of dollars of their shareholders money each year trying to affect legislation that will serve their shareholders’ interests.

People that complain about corporations lobbying politicians and donating to campaigns should embrace elimination of the corporate income tax and corporate welfare and corporate regulation. Basically, if government left corporations alone, corporations would leave politics alone. Until that happens, corporations will obviously use every legal means possible to avoid punishment (taxes and regulation) and curry favor (corporate welfare, price supports, subsidies, and protective tariffs).