Google Dodges Taxes; Obama Headlines Fundraiser

According to the latest news reports, internet giant Google Inc. has successfully shifted around its income to avoid America's steep 35 percent corporate tax rate. As a result, the company has saved itself an astonishing $3.1 billion:

Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

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.

"I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens," Obama said in a White House announcement in May.

But the international corporation's history of tax avoidance isn't enough to keep the president away from their fundraising ability during a contentious election season.  The president was in California today for two Democratic Party fundraisers, one of which was held at the personal Palo Alto residence of Marissa Mayer, a vice president at Google.  The in-house fundraiser charged $30,000-per-person to support 50 Democratic candidates.