The European Commission is set to formally accuse Apple of funneling billions into an illegal Irish tax shelter—possibility setting up the world's largest corporation for "a record fine of as much as several billions of euros," according to the Financial Times.

Google generated $22 billion in revenue from its Irish subsidiary. Guess what amount it paid in taxes on that revenue. Guess again, because it's even lower.

Apple's long history of using tax shelters is finally coming under European scrutiny. EU regulators have begun "formal investigations" into Apple's tax practices, which are responsible for funneling company revenue into Ireland since 1980, saving Apple $74 billion between 2010 and 2013.

Google, like other enlightened corporations, makes its workers to routinely rank each other and forces the scores to match a bell curve. The employees who are placed at the wrong end of the bell curve risk termination. That's stressful enough—now imagine your CEO personally meddling.

If Twitter's transformation from "that micro-blogging service" to publicly traded advertising titan works out, it's going to have a painful tax bill. But there's good news! Twitter is already pulling an Apple and setting itself up with Irish money loopholes.

The mega-valuable company that makes your laptop is under congressional scrutiny this week for offshore tax-dodging. It all started in 1980, when Apple's California execs moved their operation to Ireland with a fake company with the codename "Waldwill Limited."

Tim Cook's grand scheme to avoid American corporate tax rates was just revealed as a little more absurd, with a new report by the New York Times. The (Californian) company is using (Irish) dummy companies to funnel cash to (Manhattan) bank accounts.

Bill Allison, the editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation, looks at the lobbying and campaign finance records relating to Apple as its CEO, Tim Cook, appears before a Senate Committee.

If you run one of the most massive operations in the history of modern capitalism, here's a handy tip: funnel your money to Ireland with a series of shell companies, and you'll pay a tax rate of two percent. It's saved Apple $74 billion over the past three years.