Google boss tells MPs: I don’t know how much I get paid

Matt Brittin, president of Google’s EMEA Business and Operations division, and Tom Hutchinson, vice president of finance, defended the deal and blamed HMRC for the six years it took to come up with a tax bill for Google’s activities in the UK.

But Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier hit back: “Do you really understand the anger Mr Brittin?”

When challenged by the committee on Google’s decision to perfectly legally squirrel away profit to tax havens, such as Bermuda, Hutchinson said: “The Bermuda structure does not impact the taxes we pay in the United Kingdom”.

Ms Hillier responded: “You don’t know what you get paid?… Out there, taxpayers, our constituents, are very angry, they live in a different world clearly to the world you live in, if you can’t even tell us what you are paid”.

Questioned about audits in other jurisdictions such as France and Italy, HMRC revealed it could reopen the investigation if “material” new evidence emerged from future overseas settlements.

The chancellor had previously claimed that the company’s settlement was a outcome of the Diverted Profits Tax, which had been introduced earlier to target multinational companies that were routing profits beyond the confines of the country.

“They are just statements from politicians asking us to pay more money”, he said.

Both Google and HMRC strongly Thursday denied any political influence in the settlement although Brittin did admit that during the more than 20 official meetings Google had with United Kingdom politicians in the last three years, the issue of tax was nearly certainly mentioned.

Since George Osborne applauded Google’s tax agreement with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) two weeks ago, public sentiment has been mounting against what many feel are unduly favourable tax arrangements for the world’s multinationals.

Both men said that Google paid a global average of 19% tax on its profits based on a five-year average, but they could not give an overall figure for profit on which the figure was based. While this is a sizeable figure, many believe it is too little, and constitutes a sweetheart deal between the government and Google.

A Google boss has prompted fury from MPs after suggesting he does not know how much he gets paid.

“Jim Harra, HMRC’s director general business tax, said Google had not been penalised because of the difficulty in proving ‘insufficient care”.

The committee did not seem convinced by this and asked why, if Google is paying fair taxes in the United Kingdom, it has a complex web of financial structures that involve tax havens such as Bermuda. “It’s up to the governments to decide where we should be paying our taxes”. Or perhaps his embarrassment was genuine, and spurred by the knowledge that his salary is one of the few facts his company’s search engine isn’t able to provide.