Google 'avoids billions in taxes via Bermuda'

Type “Bermuda tax” into Google and the search engine’s high-tech algorithm completes the phrase with a number of suggestions, including, “haven”.

We can only speculate whether that function would receive the approval of the company’s lawyers and accountants after it was claimed that Google had shifted nearly $10bn (£6.2bn) of revenues to a shell company based in the picturesque British Overseas Territory, avoiding $2bn in worldwide income taxes in 2011.

The internet giant, according to a Bloomberg analysis of a recent filing by a Google subsidiary in the Netherlands, cut its overall tax rate by almost half thanks to the move, which is entirely legal.

In all, it is reported to have shifted $9.8bn in revenues to the island territory that sits off the east coast of the US, across the continent from Google’s headquarters in California. Bermuda does not have corporate income tax levy.

The company could not be reached for comment tonight.