| Notes |
James River Group, Uber’s insurer, paid a tax rate of just 12.6% last year. That’s less than half the average rate paid by companies in the S&P 500 last year, which was 27%. The effective U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%.
How did James River Group manage to avoid the tax man? A few years ago, it moved to an island. James River Group was formed in 2002 and was originally based in Chapel Hill, N.C. The company’s website still lists its mailing address as Raleigh, N.C. But in 2007, the company was acquired by New York-based hedge fund D. E. Shaw. The deal sparked two shareholder lawsuits and huge payouts for James River’s founders, including $60 million for Matthew Bronfman, a scion of the family that once owned liquor giant Seagrams.
Shaw merged James River with a Bermuda-based shell company, and moved the combined firm’s headquarters to the island |