Chigwell 7:22 Sun Jan 24
Google's tax bill
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After a 6 year investigation by HMRC, Google will pay backdated corporation tax (with interest) of £130 million (which sounds a lot, but is only double last week's Lottery prize).
Its UK sales in 2014 alone were £4.5 billion. Even if it had costs against that of say £500 million, i.e. a profit of £4 billion, corporation tax at 20% would have been (calculator out) £800 million.
Osborne claims this is a victory for the Treasury.
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Replies - In Chronological Order ( Show Newest Messages First)
After8
7:27 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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So basically what you're saying is labour did nothing about it and Osborne has has them investigated and now they're paying tax just as Amazon are?
I presume you don't use any google service?
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Far Cough
7:28 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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After8 7:20 Sun Jan 24
Re: Hello
I wouldn't say I was back. Just popping my head in.
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bruuuno
7:29 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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I don't understand Tax - is this because google pay tax elsewhere or they just don't have to pay much due to the way they are set up?
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whufcroe
7:32 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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After8 7:27 Sun Jan 24
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Sven Roeder
7:37 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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The VERY simple way is that the intellectual property ie the Google brand & trade name would be owned by a company based in country where no or little tax is paid .... Jersey , Cayman Islands etc
If Google DID gross £5bn in the UK and have costs of £500m they would also pay a licencing fee of ...... ooooh lets say £4.5bn .... to Google (Jersey) for the right to use the Google name in the UK.
Simples
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Sven Roeder
7:40 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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The simple way to deal with it would be to strike out any costs paid to companies based in tax havens and treat them as non-deductible.
Again .... Simples
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charleyfarley
7:53 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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bruuuno you need to look up Dutch sandwiches and a Manchester Utd letterbox in the Cayman Islands and all will be revealed
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charleyfarley
7:56 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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Also Osbourne threatened a new 25% diverted tax profit on the big companies that didn't play ball
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lab
7:59 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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130 million up on where we were before
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Hermit Road
8:04 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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Labour have a terrible record on this, the Torres marginally better. Both are pretty disgusting. We should be taxing the fuck out of Google. What are they going to do, stop making us money by letting us use their search engine? It's not the same as a big manufacturer who is employing people in this country, they're a leech who not only have an almost tax free ride, but they damage the economy in the process through their dominant market position and by employing people outside the UK.
Make it simple, 20% on all their revenue. Fuck taxing profits.
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lab
8:08 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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If I owned a company I would get away with what I could in this country .especially when I witness transit vans , caravans , trailers full of chopped down trees pulling into public parks, private farm land or just about anywhere these tax free people wanna spend a few weeks . Filthy scum .
There is a possibility you may think I'm a bit strange posting this . I really hope so .
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lab
8:13 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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You can't tax people on what they don't have in their pocket anymore . What would be the point of having a business? Tax profit , yes.
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bruuuno
8:15 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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A Dutch sandwich sounds like a perverse sex act
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Hermit Road
9:03 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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Lab. If we taxed Goggle on 20% of their revenues, they would not cease to do business here at all because their business would still be massively profitable.
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Infidel
10:07 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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There are a lot of ill-educated and ignorant posters on this thread.
It always happens when corporation tax comes up as a subject.
Google has no case to answer because it hasn't broken any laws. It has arranged its affairs to minimise its tax bill, which is what every sane individual does.
If you have an ISA you have done exactly what Google has done. An ISA is a way to park your money without paying tax. It's a tax dodge. So is reclaiming the VAT at the airport when you shop abroad.
Every country has its own corporation tax rate. Some are higher than others. Not surprisingly businesses tend to set up their head office in countries with the lowest rates. Ireland has created an entire lucrative niche as a hub for pan European businesses because it has a 12% corporation tax rate. Ditto Luxembourg and (for more complicated tax reasons) Holland.
So Google is right to locate its European headquarters in Ireland or Luxembourg and pay all its taxes there. I don't see why anyone has a problem with that.
Especially the UK,which is cutting corporation tax every year precisely to attract big companies to re-locate and pay their corporation tax here. It's staggeringly hypocritical for the Treasury both to complain about large companies paying their taxes in another country and at the same time dangle a low tax rate in front of them to get them to relocate to the UK.
The answer is for all countries to cut their tax rates. A 'race to the bottom' would be an excellent thing - stimulating investment and jobs.
Even better, scrap corporation tax altogether. After all there is no need for it because there is a tax on dividends. Shareholders are being taxed twice on exactly the same profits - once when they declare them to HMRC and then again when they take them out as dividends. Why not just tax them once?
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The Ghost of Braderz
10:25 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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I feel as though Google are the least of all companies that should need to pay any tax.
But I also disagree with a lot of laws. Like rape and that. So who'd pay attention to my opinion.
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Gavros
10:33 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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"The answer is for all countries to cut their tax rates. A 'race to the bottom' would be an excellent thing - stimulating investment and jobs"
You talk some proper shit sometime, Infidel. I bet you have wet dreams about Ayn Rand.
There needs to be a treaty made up to stop this sort of shit - including UK offshore tax havens. A synchronised European corporate tax rate and any company trading in Europe, even remotely, liable for it.
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Hermit Road
10:45 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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Google make billions from the UK partly because there is an infrastructure paid for by tax. No tax revenue=no government=anarchy=not much business for Google. They should contribute because the government should enact a law that forces them to contribute. Given their ability to mask profit, just make it a simple tax on revenue.
As for the logic that there should be no corporation tax because there's already a tax on dividends, it's frankly bizarre given that they probably don't pay a dividend in line with many US corporations, and if they did, it wouldn't be taxed here.
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Full Claret Jacket
10:59 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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I think a lot of people confuse Tax evasion which is illegal with tax efficiency which is not.
The big corporations have of course setup to be tax efficient.
The plus side of this is they can invest in people and the future. Once you jump all over these corporations moaning about the fact that they aren't paying their way - many who have a share price to protect, they'll be cutting costs to balance it out which means less jobs, less investment in the UK and ultimately a bigger burden on us all.
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Gavros
11:01 Sun Jan 24
Re: Google's tax bill
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fuck them. pay tax like other normal companies or get closed down.
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