Google, you've been a bad, but legal, boy. Bloomberg reports that Google avoided nearly $2 billion in taxes around the world for the 2011 tax year by moving $9.8 billion in tax revenue to a Bermuda-based shell company. This amount is just about double the amount moved to the shell company three years ago.

While not illegal, moving its revenue to Bermuda allows Google to cut its tax rate by about half because Bermuda does not feature a corporate income tax. Of course, countries aren't pleased by Google doing this, especially in the current economic downturn. France, the UK, Italy, and Australia are all looking into Google's tax avoidance.

Apple was the one to pioneer this technique and use the British Virgin islands as their tax haven. Every company does this to some degree, but it looks like governments might planning to put an end to it, or at least limit it--that is until an accountant finds another way around the new rules.