News UK MPs accuse Google of tax dodge

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/12/22/uk-mps-accuse-google-of-tax-dodge/1

Following the £29 million fine issued by the Turkish government for tax avoidance, UK MPs have accused Google of dodging up to £450 million in corporation tax from its UK arm.

 

Says the man who claimed biscuits, alcohol and sofa covers as part of his expense allowance...

 

lol touche

I'm not a tax lawyer but if the rules allow Google to do this then the politicians should either change the rules or shut up. Yes it would be nice if some companies had more of a social conscience...but if they were to use that as a business model, they would be charities and not what they actually are.

I'm all for taxing the rich to Heaven but this smells of quasi-electioneering and, as Bursar highlights, reeks of outright hypocrisy.

Democracy? Pah! Stick it...

 

Problem is the law isn't always black and white on things like this. It's usually up to a high court judge to decide where the law stands on this, whose ruling will then go on to be used as an example in any similar cases in the future.

From what I understand, Google UK are just syphoning all their profits (and a bit more) over to Google Ireland so Google as a whole has to pay less tax. That is wrong IMO, that cash is generated by a subsidiary company based in the UK, so it should be paying UK taxes, not Irish taxes. Not only is Google not paying enough taxes, but they're paying it to the wrong people too. They should pay up IMO if they are syphoning cash to another company.

 

Lots of business set themselves up as a charity in order to avoid tax, there are alot of bogus charities out there.

Most big corporations have clever accountants that find loop holes and ways to avoid paying tax. They should just pay like everyone else has too and stop abusing the system.

 

how do they estimate a loss of 450 million in tax from a 150 mill turnover? if they do not break any laws I don't see the problem, a company pays tax in the country in witch it has its headquarters. the one problem GB may have is that their tax i too high.

 

Mp's are just trying to shift media attention from their own swindling of the systems.

 

Their expenses is a mere trifle of the value here.

I wish people would stop going on about such pathetically small amounts of money that MPs may have claimed, they are mere peanuts compared to other inefficiencies in the system and loopholes such as this one.

 

they cleaned out some of the tax evasion loopholes a few years ago, anyone remember the "i was payed in coffee beans" loophole, which no longer exists?

I'm sure there are many more loopholes, which could be closed.

 

As someone who was in the industry for 13+ years devising and marketing these types of schemes to UK corporates, I can speak with some authority on the subject.

There is nothing illegal in what Google has done. They have simply structured their tax affairs as the the existing tax laws allow them to. Those laws were passed by Parliament and successive UK Governments have had ample opportunity to fix them.

To me, the travesty in the story is not that Google is legally exercising their right - like every UK citizen - to structure their tax affairs as they please. No, the travesty is that successive UK governments have had ample opportunity to change the tax laws they don't like and have neglected to do so.

I see the MPs' comments as nothing more than electioneering, at best and, at worst, a pathetic attempt to deflect the attention of the public away from the appalling 'pigs at the trough' behaviour of UK MPs and their expenses. Why journalists continue to fall into this trap is beyond me.

 

I wonder how many MPs are on the boards of other companies doing the same thing? That may be why the law has been left alone for so long..... Not that I'm cynical or anything.

 

Welcome to capitalism , people. This is what happens when a company's primary goal is making money. It's not just google, it's virtually every profit making organization. They do it because they can, and if they didn't then shareholders would be up in arms. If the law is tightened up, or a legal precedent set which stops them from doing it, that's different . But for the moment, this is the system we have created and we should not be surprised when news like this emerges. It's a bit like playing CS and complaining that someone shot you. http://valleywag.gawker.com/5015528/eric-schmidt-denies-existence-of-google-evil-meter

 

Nothing illegal about avoidance...