Google to pay back £130Million Back Tax to UK

[arista]

Well Done George Osborne
Keep Up the Good Work

http://news.sky.com/story/1628088/google-agrees-to-pay-millions-in-uk-back-taxes

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2015/10/2/421827/default/v1/gettyimages-486234008-1-736x414.jpg

[The agreement covers payments back to 2005, the internet company said.

"We will now pay tax based on revenue from UK-based advertisers, which reflects the size and scope of our UK business," a spokeswoman said.]




If Only New Labour
had George
back then

[DemolitionRed]

Whilst people may naively believe this is good news, what it actually is, if you understand tax evasion at all, is an HMRC disaster.

It was Richard Murphy who unearthed and got on the coattails of the Google big tax evasion back in 2007. http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2009/04/19/googles-tax/ and its himself, along with John McDonnell(labour) and the cooperation of a reluctant Jesse Drucker that uncovered this whole sorry mess.

Bottom line is, Google owe considerably more than £130m in back taxes.

First, it looks like the Irish sales operation is going to survive intact. If true this is a disaster: the focus of the OECD BEPS process was to force companies like Google to recognise their sales in countries like the UK by requiring that they be recognised as having what are called permanent establishments in this country. If that is not going to happen then HMRC and the Treasury have given back dated approval to Google’s avoidance and have accepted it for the future, which virtually kicks the legs from under BEPS process before it has had a chance to get going. The Diverted Profits Tax was a deliberate BEPS spoiler by George Osborne and now he is doing it again. If true that is utterly irresponsible to the world community.

This gives rise to the second concern. The UK is clearly endorsing tax competition with this deal. In the process it endorses the shift of tax from multinational companies to individuals and harms the cause of equality and fair commercial competition in the process.

The third concern is that the basis of this deal is bizarre: it is apparently technically cost plus pricing plus a little proportion of turnover. When the OECD has begun to move towards endorsing profit split arrangements the logic of this bizarre transfer pricing arrangement is hard to fathom.

Fourth, this suggests the culture of cutting dodgy deals with large companies is still very much alive and kicking at HMRC. The sheer incompetence of doing that is hard to fathom. The politics are even harder to grasp unless they are of contempt for the ordinary people and the small business community of the UK. Crickhowell, eat your heart out.

Fifth, other countries will rightly hate us for this. The EU will, I imagine, be livid. Washington will not be. Nor will a host of US multinationals.

And last? This deal is a great one for the tax abuse industry. That is the last thing we wanted.
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/01/22/googles-tax-deal-is-another-hmrc-big-business-disaster/

[arista]

"Bottom line is, Google owe considerably more than £130m in back taxes."

Bang on Right DR
that was said Live on SkyNewsHD Newspaper Review AM.

But this is a start.

New Labour let it all go Wrong
under their 13 Years.
They Got Greedy.

[joeysteele]

Doesn't sound anywhere near enough to me.

[arista]

Doesn't sound anywhere near enough to me.


Its a Good Start.

[DemolitionRed]

Its a Good Start.

I think its a disastrous start because Osborne has just endorsed a future precedent on what Google can get away with. Our government is wittingly undermining the BEPS

[arista]

I think its a disastrous start because Osborne has just endorsed a future precedent on what Google can get away with. Our government is wittingly undermining the BEPS



OK
but better than New Labour

[joeysteele]

I think its a disastrous start because Osborne has just endorsed a future precedent on what Google can get away with. Our government is wittingly undermining the BEPS

I agree.

[Livia]

It's not enough cash, but what it is, is an admission. And they will pay tax going forward which can only be a good thing. I'm sure this wasn't just offered an accepted, it would have been negotiated as part of an ongoing package. So even though it's inevitable that some people will see it as a negative, it isn't. And it's also a precedent for other companies to face the music and honour their tax bill from here on in.

And let's bear in mind, they reached this agreement with the Tories. They paid NOTHING under Labour.

[smudgie]

It's not enough cash, but what it is, is an admission. And they will pay tax going forward which can only be a good thing. I'm sure this wasn't just offered an accepted, it would have been negotiated as part of an ongoing package. So even though it's inevitable that some people will see it as a negative, it isn't. And it's also a precedent for other companies to face the music and honour there tax bill from here on in.

And let's bear in mind, they reached this agreement with the Tories. They paid NOTHING under Labour.

Aye, it has to be a positive, any tax money paid helps.
Hopefully it is the start of more to come.

[Livia]

Aye, it has to be a positive, any tax money paid helps.
Hopefully it is the start of more to come.

I hope so too. Let's hope Amazon and Starbucks and all the others step up.

[arista]

It's not enough cash, but what it is, is an admission. And they will pay tax going forward which can only be a good thing. I'm sure this wasn't just offered an accepted, it would have been negotiated as part of an ongoing package. So even though it's inevitable that some people will see it as a negative, it isn't. And it's also a precedent for other companies to face the music and honour their tax bill from here on in.

And let's bear in mind, they reached this agreement with the Tories. They paid NOTHING under Labour.


You Are Most Wise Livia

[Kizzy]

It's not enough cash, but what it is, is an admission. And they will pay tax going forward which can only be a good thing. I'm sure this wasn't just offered an accepted, it would have been negotiated as part of an ongoing package. So even though it's inevitable that some people will see it as a negative, it isn't. And it's also a precedent for other companies to face the music and honour their tax bill from here on in.

And let's bear in mind, they reached this agreement with the Tories. They paid NOTHING under Labour.


Notes to the accounts show "administrative expenses" rose significantly between 2008 and 2009 – by €794m – because of increases in headcount, sales and marketing and the "royalties paid as a result of increases in recorded turnover".

Notes on page 16 of the accounts also show that the Irish corporate tax paid is €9.6m – an effective tax of around 20%.

The figures largely echo those uncovered by an investigation across six countries conducted by Bloomberg and UK-based tax accountant Richard Murphy last year.

They uncovered a highly efficient tax structure across six territories that meant Google paid just 2.4% tax on operations outside the US.

They did pay tax under Labour.

Anger over the amount of tax paid by Google in the UK could escalate after documents showed the web giant contributed just £6m to the exchequer in 2011 on UK turnover of £395m.

Seems more tax was paid under Labour than the coalition.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2011/mar/24/google-ireland-tax-reasons-bermuda

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9460950/Google-pays-just-6m-UK-tax.html

[arista]

"Seems more tax was paid under Labour than the coalition."

Logical 13 Fecking years New Labour

Conservative -LibDem 5 years only

Anyone into Math
would say its logical as they had 13years
and they failed in so many other things
because of Blair/Brown Mess

[Vicky.]

Doesn't sound anywhere near enough to me.

No...especially if its back to 2005?

I guess at least its starting, but nowhere near fast enough nor harsh enough.

[Kizzy]

"Seems more tax was paid under Labour than the coalition."

Logical 13 Fecking years New Labour

Conservative -LibDem 5 years only

Anyone into Math
would say its logical as they had 13years
and they failed in so many other things
because of Blair/Brown Mess

We're not discussing other things, just this thing.

[DemolitionRed]

It was Gordon Brown who made it possible for large corporations to slip through paying their tax obligations. This government has just encouraged it to continue but then lets face it, all cabinets are embroiled in corporate tax scams.

High fives the Green Party and Corbynomics on this one.

[lostalex]

That is nice of them. Google is a good company.

[Kizzy]

“We could do lots of averages but let us be generous and assume that the average rate for the period is 25%. That would mean that on its estimated £7.2bn UK profit Google should have paid corporation tax of £1.8bn. At best, it paid about £200m. That is an estimated shortfall of £1.6bn – lots of nurses and teachers, and probably bigger than the yield from the bedroom tax.

“Osborne will probably chicken out of explaining and say that the Treasury does not discuss individual tax payments but they have instigated this by talking about it, so that is out of the window.”

The Conservative MP Mark Garnier, a member of the Treasury select committee, also said the agreement represented a relatively small amount of money. “They are turning over billions a year and still paying relatively small amounts of tax,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/23/google-uk-back-tax-deal-lambasted-as-derisory

[joeysteele]

I don't think either main party had any main plans to claw back taxes until the election last year.
So both were as bad as each other on it.

[lostalex]

I don't think either main party had any main plans to claw back taxes until the election last year.
So both were as bad as each other on it.

Corbyn probably wants to drive out all foreign companies especially American companies. he's such a racist against Americans. he wants only Iranese and Venezuelanese and Russianese companies in Britain. he mostly just hates Americans.

[user104658]

Hello piss, meet ocean. Pats on the back all around rah rah rah.