Technology giant Google has been accused of dodging more than £150 million in UK taxes after its latest accounts were made public. The company, which made over £3 billion in the UK last year, paid just £12 million in corporation tax.
MPs claim that the sum is far below what the firm should be paying, and that Google has used a series of lucrative and unethical tax loopholes to avoid paying its share of corporation tax in the UK, even after promising to do so.
Google was one of several international companies involved in UK tax scandals in the past year. Along with Starbucks and Amazon, it was highlighted as one of the country’s top tax avoiders due to its complicated international tax arrangements.
The web company allegedly avoided including £3 billion in sales in its most recent UK accounts, instead routing them to an international company and claiming that it earned just £36.8 million in profit on UK sales of only £506 million.
Excess earnings were included in Google’s US accounts. Google has maintained that its UK operations are based out of Ireland, and that it pays its share of taxes for all income earned within the UK.
Chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge branded the company as ‘calculated, unethical and evil’ earlier this year, when Google appeared as part of a hearing in May. She commented on the recent tax issue, noting that the US-based company shows ‘no corporate responsibility over tax.’
Google was recently forced to allocate £24 million to repay taxes that it avoided in previous quarters using its Ireland-based office. Critics of Google and other foreign firms avoiding taxes in the UK claim that the penalty was too small, and that a large reform of tax arrangements needs to be undertaken.
