Google’s Deal With UK Taxman May Be Investigated By The EU

The Labour MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They’re shifting the profits they make here to other jurisdictions where there is lower tax or no tax and thereby avoiding paying their contribution”.

Executives from Google and HMRC bosses are to be grilled on the deal by the PAC on February 11 in the latest of a series of probes by the influential spending watchdog into multinationals’ tax affairs.

“Despite this deal, the tax headache may not be over for Google”, said Tim Wach, global managing director at Taxand.

Margrethe Vestager said so-called sweetheart deals with the tax authorities were “unfair” and sometimes “illegal”, as a storm continued to swirl in Britain over Google’s deal.

After a six-year audit we are paying the full amount of tax that HM Revenue & Customs agree we should pay, including £130 million in additional back tax.

Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s economy spokesperson, said: “There is a palpable sense of scepticism amongst the public, experts and even within the Conservative Party, that the tax settlement reached with Google represents value for the taxpayer”.

Google has come under the spotlight after it emerged it made a £130 million tax deal with the United Kingdom government, which critics allege amounts to a 3% effective tax rate.

The European Commission’s competition chief has indicated she would be willing to look at complaints about Google’s United Kingdom tax arrangements. “We will look into it and then decide where to move from there”, said Ricardo Cardoso, spokesman for Ms. Vestager.

Peter Barron, Google’s communications vice-president, said the company paid the standard 20 percent corporation tax on the profits generated by its activities in Britain. “I’m not sure if any tax has been paid in those countries”. “I think we should be in a union where everyone has a fair chance of making it. If you’re a small, innovative company the bigger ones shouldn’t close the market and disable your opportunity to find customers”, she told the BBC.

He added: “As a U.S. company, we pay the bulk of our corporate tax in the USA: $3.3bn in the last reported year”.

“If one company doesn’t pay taxes, obviously this company has a stronger position in that competition”.

Google and the United Kingdom government are facing a barrage of complaints over the tech giant’s recent £130m ($185 million) settlement with British tax authorities.

On Thursday morning, the European Commission also announced new proposals to crack down on tax avoidance in Europe, requiring EU EU member states to “apply a minimum level of protection against avoidance…”