Tax planning is fine.<p>Tax evasion is illegal.<p>The grey area of tax avoidance - misusing tax laws in ways that were not intended - is not illegal, but not fine. A variety of bizarre corporate structures and dodges are used and the only purpose they serve is to shuffle tax away from government.  There&#x27;s no reason Starbucks has its own coffee bean roasting company that sells its beans at huge price to the Starbucks coffee shops.  The only reason it&#x27;s been structured like that is to funnel tax away from governments where the shops are to the tax haven where the coffee roasting company is.<p>When a London business, selling products in London, to people in London, buys Google ads from the Google London office, paying for those ads from their London bank account to Google&#x27;s London bank account in GBP the only reason someone in Ireland rubber stamps the paperwork is so Google can -quite legally- avoid tax.<p>These are scumbag moves and they create a lot of hostility.