10. Microsoft
CEO: Steve Ballmer (With a fortune of $14.5 billion, Ballmer is the 33rd richest person, according to Forbes.)
2010 Pre-tax Profit: $25 billion.
Taxation strategy: Microsoft is a master of shifting income through various foreign countries— “to Bermuda via the Netherlands via Ireland” —in order to limit its domestic income subject to taxation. According to the blog
MicrosoftTaxDodge, a carefully timed press release threatening to move the company's headquarters out of Washington state resulted in Rep. Ross Hunter, a 17-year former manager at Microsoft, pushing through “two huge gifts [for the company]: a $100 million annual tax cut and an estimated $1.25 billion in amnesty on its 13-year Nevada tax dodge.”
Microsoft fun-fact: Both US and European regulators have found Microsoft in violation of anti-trust laws – it's practically the firm's business model.