Seriously, what is wrong with everyone and these questions. They closed down all these things a long time ago. You 1) go and live in that other country; 2) you have a base in x and move backwards and forwards on 'working-holidays'; 3) you pay it and enjoy life wherever you call home. Anything else is just plain stupid, the tax system is so complex that the accountants have no idea themselves, have experience of that screw up. So when they mess it up, you will be left with a bill you can't pay, the accountant saying "but it's your responsibility" which they always get away with, and then run as fast as they can as you can't pay their fees any longer. Basically doing that you are a duck unwittingly flying through a duck-shoot, that's your odds!
Soros is US citizen and reportedly paid no income tax in building his fortune. Use all kinds of offshore gimmicks. Aapl, Msft, and many others paid small tax in overseas subs and the shareholders of aapl and msft don't have to pay any tax on it. There's no use doing all the arguing on this thread. If you can afford the best lawyers, you can avoid, or at least defer, taxes from any freaking where.
MSFT is an operating company, U.S. tax code is very specific on overseas operating vs investing companies so that's an apples to oranges comparison that will get you nothing but trouble. I'd also hesitate to do my tax planning based on what you read on Breitbart about how the guy they view as the devil incarnate supposedly avoided taxes, but hey that's just me.
Msft is an operating co. Soros runs an investment co. They both avoided/deferred taxes for many years. Attempting to paint Soros tax picture as just a 'breitbart' fantasy, when it has been reported on bloomberg and many other news sites, is dishonest, sig.
The OP is talking about pure investments, so anything MSFT did or is doing is absolutely irrelevant to them or anyone else here trying to avoid taxes on investments by forming an offshore investment company because of the way the tax code is written (actually we've drifted to talking U.S. tax code so even more irrelevant to the OP). That's pretty cut and dry. Soros deferred his taxes, not avoided them, which again was what the OP was talking about. A wee bit of a difference between the two. Nonetheless, neither MSFT or Soros (especially since the code has changed since) are instructive for the OP or any of us in this matter.
Soros's deferral of taxes allowed him to compound his money on the taxes he didn't pay and make 13 billion from it. Now his deferred tax is around 7 billion. So he made 6 billion free and clear from deferring his taxes. http://www.mrctv.org/blog/george-soros-may-owe-7-billion-taxes Making free and clear money by tax deferral isn't really any different than obtaining it by tax avoidance, is it?
We're splitting hairs here based on what the OP was asking, which was a way to earn money tax free based on their locality and some silly auto-key clicking software. BTW, I'm not sure how the Irish tax agency would know or report that Soros has avoided $13B in U.S. federal, state, and local taxes per the Bloomberg article, generally the Irish couldn't give a toss what the U.S. tax rates are ("At the end of 2013, Soros—through Soros Fund Management—had amassed $13.3 billion through the use of deferrals, according to Irish regulatory filings by Soros.").
In addition, a key point is that he *may* owe the 7 billion in deferred tax. Before the tax loophole he used to defer all the taxes was closed, he once again changed domociles of his fund to a place where it is 'unclear' if the loophole closing will apply to him. My only point was that a bunch of guys yakking on the internet isn't going to save much taxes, and it would be very dangerous to tax plan based on a thread on et. But that lawyers with experience at this can save you money, perhaps even all of it if you are willing and able to pay for the best.