Presenting a possible, and overlooked, ripple from the Irish bailout (which was looking ever more likely, bar the shouting, at pixel time). Basically, sovereign bailouts involve a certain quid pro quo. For a start, thereâs been talk that Germany is pushing for the countryâs low, low 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate to be hiked. But Irelandâs government remains on course to confirm on Monday that this former jewel in the Celtic Tigerâs crown will be kept. We foresee a scrap. Awkward. And perhaps not least for a certain tax-avoiding search engine. Interesting to note that Google lagged the Nasdaq somewhat on Monday: Interesting, because as Bloomberg BusinessWeek explained recently: To reduce its overseas tax bill, Google uses a complicated legal structure that has saved it $3.1 billion since 2007 and boosted last yearâs overall earnings by 26 percent⦠When a company in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa purchases a search ad through Google, it sends the money to Google Ireland. The Irish government taxes corporate profits at 12.5 percent, but Google mostly escapes that tax because its earnings donât stay in the Dublin office, which reported a pretax profit of less than 1 percent of revenues in 2008⦠Google Ireland sends the earnings on a tax-lite journey to the Netherlands, whence a shell subsidiary passes it on practically untouched to a Bermudan holding, basically. They call it a âDouble Irishâ. Jammy stuff. Until your tax haven files for a bailout from some very angry Germans, that is. And 26 per cent of your earnings is a lot to put at risk⦠http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/201...e-evil-or-too-reliant-on-irelands-tax-regime/ And yes, short Google.