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Microsoft Corp. is currently sitting on almost $29.6 billion it would owe in U.S. taxes if it repatriated the $92.9 billion of earnings it is keeping offshore, according to disclosures in the company's most recent annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such maneuvers -- although often legal -- threaten to signficantly reduce U.S. corporate tax receipts during an era marked by government budget deficits.

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Carl Levin's subcommittee on investigations says the equipment-maker routed money through a Swiss subsidiary.

Poorer nations lose three times more money to havens a year than they get in aid. The G8 has the chance to change this.

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This is as noted by the New York Times, "a golden age for corporate profits." Corporations have simply stopped paying their taxes. Pay Up Now just completed a compilation of corporate tax payments over the past five years, using SEC data as reported by the companies themselves. The firms chosen are top-earners who have filed 10-K reports through 2012. Their US Tax figures represent the five-year total of "current" payments.