So, what do we want to know this afternoon in the Parlimanetary Accounts Committee hearing fro Google, Starbucks and Amazon.<\/p>\n
There are slight variations for each, of course, but fundamentally, I think my questioning would be:<\/p>\n
1) What do you actually do, where?<\/p>\n
2) How is that different from the way you record what you do? So, for example, if you sell in the UK why do you record it in Ireland?<\/p>\n
3) If you say you sell from Luxembourg where is the bill sent from, and why, and how is that consistent with the claim that you're selling from another country?<\/p>\n
4) Why do you buy coffee through Switzerland?<\/p>\n
5) Who decides what you stock (in the case of Amazon)?<\/p>\n
6) If you're selling from Ireland (Google) why are the adverts on a UK specific search engine?<\/p>\n
7) Why is there an Amazon.co.uk if its a Luxembourg entity?<\/p>\n
8) Why are so many royalites paid through the Netherlands?<\/p>\n
9) Where does all the income from your sales in Ireland, Switzerland and Luxembourg end up so that you pay such low taxes outside the USA? Is it Bermuda, or Cayman?<\/p>\n
10) If the money goes to Bermuda how does that benefit your shareholders when they can never access it without more tax being paid than you have decalred in yuour accounts?<\/p>\n
11) If the money yopu're making can't be accessed by your shareholders are you really acting in their best interests? Or are you acting in management's interests?<\/p>\n
12) How much case have you got offshore right now?<\/p>\n
13) How many years of your accounts are not agreed by HMRC?<\/p>\n
14) What adjustments have HMRC demanded to your tax declaration and why?<\/p>\n
15) When were those adjustments made and why?<\/p>\n
16) If you had to pay tax here would you leave? If so, why? And where would you go?<\/p>\n
17) If not, why aren't you paying?<\/p>\n
That will do for now. It will be interesting to see how many are answered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"