Free Republic

Google avoided about $2 billion in global income taxes last year by shifting $9.8 billion in revenue into a Bermuda shell company, Bloomberg reported. That level is almost double the total from three years ago, Bloomberg said, citing a Nov. 21 regulatory filing by a Google subsidiary in the Netherlands. And it allowed Google to cut its overall tax rate almost in half. Google's action -- moving about 80 percent of its total pretax profit from 2011 to tax-free Bermuda -- isn't illegal. On the contrary, many companies have taken similar steps in recent years to avoid paying steep taxes....

-Songwriter also has Austrian citizenship through her late father -Former husband Marc Rich fled the country when indicted on charges of tax evasion - but was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001 -House of Representatives committee later found Denise Rich had swayed the decision through donations to Clinton campaign -Comes as the latest wealthy American to denounce citizenship Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship - and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill. Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, top Democratic donor and glamorous figure in...

As far as liberal financiers go, you don’t get much more powerful than S. Donald Sussman. Since 1989, the hedge-fund billionaire has pumped millions into the coffers of Democratic politicians and their political pet projects. Sussman sits on the board of the Center for American Progress, the Democracy Alliance and the dovish Israel Policy Forum, and he’s been one of the top contributors to left-leaning 527 organizations during the 2010 election cycle. But while Sussman has long kept a behind-the-scenes profile, a recent ethics controversy in Maine has flung him into the center of a complicated dispute over state residency,...