British MPs call for Google tax probe
AFP Updated June 13, 2013, 9:53 pm
A powerful committee of British MPs has called for a tax probe into Google, after concluding that the US internet giant sought to avoid paying corporation tax on profit earned in the United Kingdom.
The House of Commons public accounts committee has revealed its findings in a report which attacked Google for claiming that sales were conducted in Ireland - which has the lowest corporation tax rate in the eurozone - and not in Britain.
Google reacted by saying that it abided by the law and that politicians, not companies were responsible for how tax law was drafted.
The cross-party committee said it had received information from ex-Google employees that UK-based staff were directly engaged in selling services.
In reaction, Google insisted that it had co-operated with tax laws, but welcomed any moves to make the system "simpler and more transparent".
The committee's report was published ahead of next week's G8 summit in Northern Ireland, where host UK will seek to tackle tax avoidance, which is legal, and tax evasion which is not.
"To avoid UK corporation tax, Google relies on the deeply unconvincing argument that its sales to UK clients take place in Ireland, despite clear evidence that the vast majority of sales activity takes place in the UK," the report said.
"The big accountancy firms sell tax advice which promotes artificial tax structures, such as that used by Google and other multinationals, which serve to avoid UK taxes rather than to reflect the substance of the way business is actually conducted."
The report concluded that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) - the UK's taxation authority - needed to probe and challenge what it called "artificial" tax arrangements.
Senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, has previously described Google as "evil" for unethically avoiding paying vast amounts of tax in the UK.
