Are we missing something here, maybe? Google, as a legal entity, is really nothing more than a piece of paper in someone's filing cabinet. As a corporation, it

Are we missing something here, maybe? Google, as a legal entity, is really nothing more than a piece of paper in someone's filing cabinet. As a corporation, it is just a legal vehicle for shuffling around money and managing liability and ownership. On the other hand, the people who work for Google are ... people. And I'm sure the great majority of them pay plenty of taxes (income, payroll, etc.) in whatever jurisdictions they live in. One of the primary functions of Google-the-entity, is to get that money to the people. In doing so, Google-the-entity pays very little tax, but the people pay lots. So the money is taxed, government programs are supported, and all is well. To put it a different way, Google's tax strategy can be considered as a way to minimize the effect of governments taxing their people twice.