PC Pro has just published this nifty little graph comparing Google UK's taxable revenues and its UK reported sales. They did the research:
But that isn't tax avoidance according to H M Revenue & Customs or part of their tax gap.
Who are they kidding?
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Surely it is just the effect of the Free market in the EU, you can sell anywhere in the EU and record those Sales where you choose.
I suspect Mercedes-Benz and BMW sell hundreds of millions of pounds in cars in the UK but that profit is recorded in Germany not the UK. Even though they have factories all over the EU.
This is obviously one of those days when you decide you don’t like the EU, compared to other days when you like the Savings directive etc…….Yes, No……which one tomorrow?
Ah….the free market that resulted from massive lobbying to ensure that corporations did not pay tax
And don’t
That free
Respectfully, we’re not stupid enough to be taken in by such stupid claims
Could you, for once, answer the point about the EU legislation that not only enables this activity, but insists that it is law?
Oh, this is legal, I’ve not denied it
But the outcome is abusive
And do you know what? In Europe that can also be illegal
It’s call abuse of the law
It’s a French concept of origin implicit in UK law only with regard to VAT
More likely, we’ll see the EU change its tax system
I think the term is “single market” (not “free market”), which aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital, and allows an Irish company like Google to sell into the UK, just as UK companies can sell into other EU countries, without any withholding applied to the sales proceeds.
Indeed it does
But we can change that
Or the tax system e.g. the CCCTB
Richard,
You are entirely wrong. There is no EU tax system, only scattered pieces of single-issue legislation. Tax policy has been retained by member states as a sovereign national matter. The Google “thing” does not arise because of an EU piece of tax legislation, but is a result of the freedom of establishment and the free movement of goods and capital.
Because tax remains a sovereign national matter, any EU-level tax-related legislation requires the unanimous agreement at the Council level. Therefore, there is a fat chance that any of the FTT (the UK and Sweden will vetoe), the CCTB (Ireland and several others), the definition of tax havens (11 countries), or automatic exchange of information under the revision of the ESTD (Austria and Luxembourg), will ever happen.
Reality can sometimes be cruel.
a) I think you’re splitting hairs
B) many states in the EU are working towards a CCCTB and plan it whether the rest agree of not – and will moose it on them, like it or not
Yes, reality is getting tough on abusers and those who help them
Richard,
Sure, a number members states can go ahead with the CCCTB under the enhance cooperation procedures. But Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK (and countless others, incl. most Eastern European member states) will stay out. This will therefore have absolutely NO effect on Google’s tax arrangements across the EU.
In fact, just like the introduction of a small-scale FTT is likely to benefit London and Switzerland by encouraging traders to relocate their business there, the CCCTB among a small number of high tax EU nations will most probably provide a further boost to Ireland (and Switzerland) as a place for multinationals to base themselves.
You’re wrong: Google’s profits will be claimed back from ireland by those countries
The fight will be amazing, but worth doing
Sorry Richard, but you are wrong.
If Ireland does not participate in the CCCTB, no country has the ability to claim any profits accounted for there. And in any event the UK will not participate in the CCCTB either.
Fighting windmills.
Don’t you believe it
California lost to Barclays but it win’t happen again
Richard, I do not understand the meaning of your last reply. Was it meant to address my own latest post?
Yes
maybe you’re too young to undertand it
Go do some research
Both you and PC Pro appear not to understand the basic principles of taxation.
Tax is not levied on turnover or revenue but on profits.
Both of you either do not know the fundamentals of taxation or you are deliberately misleading.
How patronising
I have been a chartered accountant for thirty years
I know full well how tax works
I also know how the manipulation of profit reported by location is achieved
And that’s what we’re highlighting
To pretend otherwise – as you do – is simply to excuse abuse, as you do