3. Just Google tax haven - Stuff reports Google paid just NZ$230,000 of tax in New Zealand last year despite taking in well over NZ$150 million in revenues. I reckon Google's NZ revenues are actually closer to NZ$200 million.

When is the government going to crack down on Google's use of an Irish tax haven? It also doesn't pay GST.

This raises questions about the shift of many services into the 'cloud'. Where is it taxed? Is this a whole new part of the economy (accounting, legal services, advertising, media) that is about to be internationalised and taken out of the non-tradeable economy?

Google's income tax expense for 2009 before the extra payment was $40,000, but that falls to $7726 once a deferred tax deduction for the year is factored in. The subsidiary has total deferred tax assets, which can be used to offset future tax bills, of $103,801.

Google's commission model was criticised last year, after Bloomberg reported it was paying a tax rate of just 2.4 per cent on billions of dollars of profits earned outside the United States.

Inland Revenue hinted it might take action, saying its "general anti-avoidance provision" could apply to "treaty shopping situations, where transactions were merely routed through a particular jurisdiction by way of a conduit entity and lack commercial substance".