I view what Google (and many other corporations do) as tax arbitrage. We see this here in the US where States will undercut each other to get a business to mov

I view what Google (and many other corporations do) as tax arbitrage. We see this here in the US where States will undercut each other to get a business to move to their state (although it is different from doing this at a country level). In my opinion it is a fools game for States to do this - it is a race to the bottom and the company will just pack up and move to another state as soon as they're done taking advantage of the tax code. I also think it is fine for an individual politician to express indignation as (a) they may not have been in office when this was passed and (b) one politician can't, by him or herself, change the law. What I find most interesting was what happened in the UK with Starbucks - basically they bowed to public and government pressure on tax avoidance. Still, Starbucks sounded like they were "doing the right thing" as though paying tax was voluntary. Hysterical.