According to a Senate committee memo from September, Microsoft used aggressive asset shifting to avoid $4.5 billion in American taxes from 2009 to 2011.
Avi-Yonah estimated the effective tax rate on overseas income at around 2 or 3 percent for multinational tech companies: Both in the U.S. and abroad, he said, "there's a general sense that these companies pay too little and don't really contribute their fair share."
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