woof... upon closer reading, the headline was misleading. the 2.4% rate is for overseas earnings. "Google’s overall effective tax rate [was] 22.2 percent last year".

it's not hard, however, to find evidence confirming the upstream point that large companies frequently pay a fraction of the 35% rate

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-w...