News Eric Schmidt defends Google's UK tax tactics

Eric Schmidt has come out in defence of Google's 'immoral' tax avoidance policy.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2013/04/22/eric-schmidt-defends-google-uk-tax-tactics/1

 

I do a 'great deal of good' for the Students and Staff i support, should i get a tax break?

If you as an individual where do pull the same **** you would be imprisoned.

 

All this from the whiter than white Google?

Cannot play the high moral ground now, pay up like the rest of us. They've been caught out and this is the piss poor excuse they give us?

 

Hey if you can get away with it you'd be a god damn fool not doing it.

'Immoral' or not the Government can go jump!

 

Their responsibility is to shareholders, not society.

This is the society we have built, either we change that or we cannot really complain with any real reason. If they can do it and its legal good for them.

 

Google and others shouldn't have to defend themselves when doing something completely legal. It is the MP's that should be the ones defending themselves for leaving open these legal loopholes that allow corporations such as Google to avoid paying tax whilst happily forcing disabled and dying people to find work. I can't imagine there isn't a single MP that isn't being hypocritical when calling someone else's behavior 'immoral'.

 

This....

Avoiding taxes is not illegal, nor immoral. Evading taxes is. Every business, and every person tries to minimise their tax bill. Not doing so is the exact equivalent of "donating" money to the government. Does anyone do that? Ever?

If you want them to pay more taxes fix the tax loopholes.

Businesses, the very vast majority of them, are a good thing. The benefits go far beyond the taxes they pay, it's about the people they employ, they save money by making things more efficient, and the salaries paid and money saved goes to be spent on other services and so forth.

 

So the nearly £400 million (which was 2011 figures and recent are probably more) it made on our shores, you are happy that only £6 million went on taxes in this country?

Good luck defending that one guys.

 

What's to defend? They've done nothing wrong...and an MP calling anybody immoral is practically a compliment.

I'm quite happy that - as a business - they've EARNED that much money and have paid so little back in. When the law changes, I'm sure they'll change their tactics, but until then, full credit to them for doing the best for their shareholders.

 

Regulate them out of the country and seize their UK assets now, the only way to be sure

OK I'll bank that and come back to haunt you when the game developers tax breaks gets panned again or ARM hold their hands up and give in as they can't compete due to tax liabilities that the foreign competition don't have.

 

I personally agree with Eric Schmidt (I have no relation to him, that I'm aware of anyway). Google's services are a privilege for many companies and most of those services are free, or in fact, give people money. While I'm not familiar with British politics, I'm assuming there is just as much tax corruption and misspending going on in the UK as there are in countries like the US.

Google's services probably do more for the people of the UK than the additional tax money they "should" be pitching in.

 

The way I see it, the less tax Google must give away, the more money they can inject into projects that are beneficial to the economy, not detrimental...

An MP calling tax evasion 'immoral' is so hypocritical that it cannot be explained.

 

Precisely! Why should Google (or anyone else for that matter) pay more tax than they're supposed to by law? Yes, it's shady but MPs are responsible for ensuring loopholes are closed up.

 

Am I happy that Google paid so little in taxes? No
Do I think Google are to blame and should change something? No
It's about time the vast majority of people discovered the difference between Capitalism and Socialism, look at the whole picture and not regurgitate someones soundbite opinion which more often than not has some ulterior motive.
If anything is immoral about this tax saga, it's the politicians saying "it's not right, something must be done!" and then not doing anything about it.

 

I do everything possible to lower my tax bill. Everyone does. Why wouldn't a corporation?
Its not immoral to only pay the taxes you have to. Otherwise you're giving away money unnecessarily.
As long as Google is fully legal, its up to the government to write the laws that determine how much they have to pay. All these MP's are doing is admitting that they are bad at writing tax laws.

 

If i was google I would be doing it. To be honest, Google has been singled out because it is a common place name. If Uberderk Auto International was found out doing it, noone would care and carry on with their business.

 

No they've been singled out because they've contributed so little to the UK economy yet taken so much!

 

Taken what? Money out of society? They contribute so much more than that, they're job creators and they're spenders, money is a cyclical item.

There is only one factor that actually matters here:

TAX LAW -

Anything else is irrelevant, tax and accounting standards have always been a catch-up game between regulation and clever tax accountants. Each year these get tightened to prevent companies taking the piss, and maybe this year they will be able to get a hold of a bit more of Googles taxes paid.

Oh and the British economy is basically founded on people like that these days, international businesses bring in their head offices for Europe here because it makes sense, but they would leave if we became as tax heavy as places like Sweden, so the politicians are scared to hit down too hard.

What they did to google is immoral and unfair but that doesn't matter to them because as we've seen from the expenses scandal, and the **** they throw at each other before elections, they are all immoral anyway.

I do have one little question though:

Why does the UK deserve a larger chunk of the money that an American company has earned? What did the UK do do earn it?

 

They made those profits in the UK. Weren't asking for taxes on worldwide profits, just from profits made in this country.

 

Everyone saying that a corporation should do everything it can to lower its tax bill are right, they should - but should this be allowed to included buying the government which is in place to serve the public interest? I think this crosses the line personally. Corporations legally bribe governments (through political donations and job offers to ministers when they retire) to create loopholes in law to exploit, it is this issue that needs to be tackled first.

Also, is it just me, but when anyone says that they are empowering people, I really think they mean passing the responsibility.