Google under more pressure

[Kendhni]

Google will be recalled to a parliamentary inquiry again after inconsistencies were revealed in statements about its UK activities.

Hopefully the upcoming G8 meeting can have some influence on this. In a global economy this does need to be sorted out.

I know that it is silly to look at a companies global accounts and trying to determine tax liability in a specific country but maybe the solution is that tax revenue is somehow based on where the buyer lives. However ultimately it is up to all governments to close the many loopholes that are present.

[david63]

The main problem here is that those countries that are getting the taxes will not want any changes as they will loose revenue so getting any global changes will be almost impossible.

[paultheeagle]

Make 'em pay....They should pay taxes to the country that gives them the revenue...What I mean is if a British company spend money advertising on Google then Mr Google should pay taxes to the British government, not somewhere else.

[Mr-big-bits-mk2]

This is another hangup with the EU. You as a company can pretty much chose which country you wish to be 'based in' and pay that countries taxes. What then happens is many companies pick Ireland or Luxemburg as tax is much lower there even though most of their business is conducted in say the UK.

Obviously as in the case of Google the Irish are more than happy with this as they get huge revenues from a company that has a low level of trade with them.

[paultheeagle]

They should look at Amazon as well...They paid something like £2.5m in tax and had about £4bn in sales....I bet they have a good supply of brown envelopes.

[Manoverboard]

They should look at Amazon as well...They paid something like £2.5m in tax and had about £4bn in sales....I bet they have a good supply of brown envelopes.

A point to consider however ...

Amazon sell a lot of UK products made, else packaged, by UK workers and they also use a lot of UK drivers driving UK trucks plus all the office people and Management of those companies which keeps lots of peeps in work who will pay tax ?

So Amazon are making a bigger contribution to the coffers of UK PLC than implied above.