[cheerlessbog]

In the example above the American company presumably has most of its employees in the US and ought to pay significant tax there somehow.

[iguy]

It will: the process of paying employees is heavily taxed. Who writes the check and what the nominal salary is doesn't matter too much... between the cost to the company, and the employee getting to spend the money, the government gets what 30-40%? That's a lot. And it's hard to avoid, you can't move a hundred engineers to the Bahamas at the stroke of a pen.