Microsoft (legally) avoided $6.5B in taxes over 3 years

David Gamage and Eric Talley quoted in The Seattle Times, September 21, 2012

While it’s right to a certain extent to say that U.S. companies aren’t paying their fair share of taxes, Talley said, it’s also true that multinational corporations have substantial leeway in where they locate. “If policymakers decide to close up the loophole, a potential danger is that companies may start to move their physical operations overseas,” he said.

David Gamage, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, said it’s impossible for him to know whether Microsoft or HP have done anything wrong without seeing privileged documents that he doesn’t have access to. “But my guess, based on what’s been publicly available, is that Microsoft is, at the very minimum, being extremely aggressive in its interpretation of U.S. tax laws,” he said.