Google to pay £130 milion in backdated UK tax

Yes GillT57 I agree HMRC are like dogs with rabbits when it comes to small businesses. I too wonder how Google managed to keep them at bay for 10 years ! Through a Labour, a Coalition and a Conservative government? It would seem none were particularly bothered.

They were very bothered indeed when it came to getting my £3k (in one go) instead of the 3 payments we offered and I have the nasty letters to prove it.

As usual its one rule for the big guys and a very different one for the small fries.

G20 in Paris have agreed to have country by country reporting for tax purposes.

I too had a run in with HMRC. They said I owed NIC I said I didn't and sent an elaborate detailed spreadsheet showing all NIC due in terms of employee and employers amounts. They ignored it and sent another letter from their debt management department. I replied sending duplicate spreadsheet. They sent letter telling me that unless I paid within 7 days they would take steps to recover the debt which would involve a visit to my office and possible seizure of goods to cover debt. So I paid. 12 months later (this month ) I got a cheque in the post with no explanation no covering letter just simply marked as overpayment of NIC. Yes it was the amount that I said wasn't owed. It was stressful and frustrating and morally wrong that I was bullied and threatened into this situation. The amount of money was not massive, about £800, but there was no apology nothing. I think you had similar gillybob and can share my frustration! So how do Google etc keep them at bay for 10 years?

Brilliant, this. Murdoch tells rich boys off for google deal.

www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/27/rupert-murdoch-lambasts-downing-street-posh-boys-google-tax-deal

I wonder what he gets out of it? I thought they were all friends.

Most people want tax affairs to be more open. If companies are honest, why do they want to hide where and what they pay in tax?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/01/27/the-vast-majority-of-people-in-the-uk-want-country-by-country-reporting/

Country-by-country reporting means they have to be open about where they sell their products.

Christian Aid say that we should ask our councils to only trade with companies that are transparent about their taxes.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/01/26/ask-your-council-to-get-tough-with-tax-dodgers/

Sweetheart deals have always been done, nothing new. Government is always nervous of these massive businesses. It can only get worse as globalization continues.

Businesses will always pay what tax they think their customers will tolerate, and pay accountants large amounts to work out ways to avoid tax. In fact the shareholders expect them to do just that.

The I reports today that many of these so-called "sweetheart deals" are in future not likely to be made public. The only reason this one was is because, apparently, Google had requested it be publicised - presumably thinking that taxpayers would be eternally grateful that it was paying 3%.

A survey showed that most people support the idea of a public register to show what taxes the largest companies in the world are paying. The government said it would be too complex to organise and would breach the principle of tax confidentiality. That principle means that these hugely wealthy companies can continue to pay a far lower rate of tax than some of the poorest people in the country and to make it difficult for smaller companies - who don't get the benefit of negotiating how much tax they will pay - to compete.

The article in the I also referred to Facebook paying only £4,327 in tax in 2014. A loss of £28.5 million was apparently achieved by means of awarding £35m in share bonuses. Presumably it is legal to pay out share bonuses and then claim losses, my feeling is it shouldn't be. The problem is these companies are so powerful that it seems to be they that are running the country rather than governments, and any political party that threatens these arrangements will find themselves under constant attack from a variety of sources.

www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/even-it/2016-tax-justice-and-human-rights-essay-competition

"Lycamobile, one of the Conservative party’s largest corporate donors, is at risk of being struck off the register of UK businesses after failing to file accounts on time.

The company, which has handed millions to the Tory party, is already facing the possibility of a £9.5m bill from HM Revenue & Customs for unpaid tax.

Now Lycamobile, which sells international telephone airtime, has missed a deadline to publish accounts for last year by two months, according to Companies House filings."

I bet they didn't think this would happen when they handed the Tory party £1.5 million.

“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.”

This was written by Prem Sikka, a tax expert.
If Google had paid its tax morally, the bedroom tax would not have been needed.
How many other companies like Google need to look at the morality of paying tax?

It seems odd to me that the two people who are in charge of politics in this country both benefit from the tax regime that they will not change.
It is definitely a question of morality, not the law. Cameron and Osborne have changed lots of laws, and will change lots more before they leave office.

I have Osborne and Little wallpaper in my dining room dj. I love it. I saved up for it and I paid a decorator to hang it for me too. Do you object to that as well?

Whitewave, that's why country-by-country reporting is important. Companies know how much money they take in each country.
It's a bit like the Dublin agreement for refugees. If they have to claim asylum in the country they first arrive in, why can't companies be made to report their sales in the country they are made?

www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/25/mps-launch-corporation-tax-inquiry-criticism-130m-google-hmrc-deal

Hope it's a quick enquiry; it shouldn't take years to sort out.

Globalization it seems to me is the biggest culprit. Massive companies can organize their tax affairs on a global scale, taking advantage of the best tax regimes and hiding income all over the place. Single countries don't stand a chance unless they agree to cooperate with other countries, but this has not happened with anything remotely like success so far.

Saw this as well, Eloethan.

www.globalresearch.ca/the-truth-about-poverty-in-britain-is-much-worse-than-you-think/5502783

Of course, this is just in Britain, not the rest of the world.
More news inches devoted to Davos than poverty.

This transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich seems to be accelerating. I expect everyone saw the report last week that 62 people in the world have the same amount of wealth as half the world's population. This presumably is one of the ways in which they achieve that.

More like I didn't have the money to wine and dine the "tax man" or have a meeting on my yacht in the bloody Bahamas !

You didn't have the ability to gather an army of accountants thats why.

HMRC are anything but timid when it comes to smallbusinesses though whitewave I should know I had "dealings" with them a few years back. They almost caused me a nervous breakdown over £3000. We did not dispute that we owed the money but simply asked for a little time to pay after a company went bust on us. I can quite honestly say they were evil and had me and my DH on rock bottom. Although I think "the lady" dealing with us seemed to rather enjoy that.

And according to Richard Murphy they owe £200 million for each year since then.

HMRC have been looking at them since something like 2006! Pathetic. Someone needs to get their act together.

"A member of the Treasury Select Committee, Mark Garnier, says Google’s taxation issues are complex, the implication being that complexity is a mitigating factor.

I would have thought that transparency of tax requires transparency of accounting assumptions.

Luckily we now have the previous CEO of the British Bankers Association chairing the Office for Tax Simplification."

Is it a coincidence that Dickensian is on?

That's why all the US firms are trying to relocate to the UK, whitewave.