There's a news story out today declaiming the fact that Google only pays about 2.4% in taxes by passing their money through Ireland, the Netherlands, and then finally sending the money to island nations that have little or no income tax.
This method is apparently so widespread that the technique has a name:
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.
