Google Shelters Billions From High U.S. Taxes in Bermuda

And who can blame them?

Google avoided about $2 billion in global income taxes last year by shifting $9.8 billion in revenue into a Bermuda shell company, Bloomberg reported.

That level is almost double the total from three years ago, Bloomberg said, citing a Nov. 21 regulatory filing by a Google subsidiary in the Netherlands. And it allowed Google to cut its overall tax rate almost in half.

Google's action—moving about 80 percent of its total pretax profit from 2011 to tax-free Bermuda—isn't illegal. On the contrary, many companies have taken similar steps in recent years to avoid paying steep taxes.