source

so? Seems like the US is not competitive enough.

I don't think that's the problem. The problem is that they have such loophole and who knows what numerous other.

Very creative.

... so the answer is obvious, lower the tax rate to 2.3%!! that'll show them!  all our problems will be saved!   .. we'll just cut social security, medicare, military, education, transportation, .. who needs those anyways as long as business owners are rich!!

Telling you, corporate vat that just taxes all corporations who sell stuff here. No way to get around it legally.

All of these known participants should be fined 30% of their gross annual income

Google pretty much openly admit to doing it because everyone else is doing it. Maybe that's their way of pushing for change by exposing the loophole?

That, or they are too arrogant.

I know that the Irish U2 is fiscally a Dutch firm

I'm from the Netherlands so this all seems fine to me :p. The EU is trying to get the Irish to raise their corporate tax though since they've gone bankrupt.

Simple taxes that are difficult to cheat, relatively fair and flat, encourage saving/investing while discouraging consumerism are the best ...

In an ideal system you'd have a 5% to 7.5% tax that was a flat income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and GST/VAT under the principle that every time an individual or business earned income (regardless of the source) they paid tax. Government debt would not be allowed, and tax policy should be linked to spending policy and the tax rate would be set by what revenue was needed to cover all spending. New social programs would require liquid assets equal to 1 year of operation before beginning operation and would be expected to run a 2.5% to 5% surplus if their assets dropped below 1 year of operation.