Apple’s products are everywhere. The iPhone is one of the most popular cell phones on the market. And the iPad is increasingly becoming a necessity for white collar professionals. But they avoid taxes just as famously.

But while Apple products are somewhat omnipresent, its tax bill isn’t. Recent reports indicate that through the use of international tax shelters and shell companies, the Cupertino-based electronics giant was able to decrease its tax bill by $2.4 billion.

Tax Attorneys Help Famed Electronics Company Gut Tax Bill

Big companies using laws from foreign countries or other states to decrease its tax bill is nothing new. When people joke about companies hoarding cash in a Cayman Islands bank account, it’s usually about avoiding taxes.

Apple didn’t have to go to the Cayman Islands. Instead, it went to Reno, Nevada, known as the Biggest Little City in the World. Apple reportedly opened an office there with a few employees to collect and invest the company’s profits. That allowed it to avoid California’s 8.84 percent corporate tax rate and enjoy Nevada’s zero percent rate.

How do they avoid taxes?

With an army of tax attorneys deployed to help it lower its tax bill, Apple joins other big corporations who try to lower or even ditch its tax bill altogether. In 2010, General Electric was able to pay no taxes at all with the help of its tax attorneys.

Apple’s methods are legal, but individuals trying to lower their tax bills by using certain deductions and other methods may be in for a big surprise.

You Can’t Avoid Taxes

The IRS is now auditing 1 out of every 8 or 9 US millionaires. And with 3.7 million tax levies waged by the IRS in 2011 alone, individuals aren’t likely to get as lucky as Apple.

You may not be an international corporation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t obtain a favorable outcome if you owe back taxes to the IRS. With the help of a tax attorney or tax professional, you can reach a deal with the IRS that Steve Jobs would be proud of.