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Google Agrees To Pay 130M UK Pounds (~ $185M) In Back Taxes (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by timothy on from the cutting-their-losses dept.

whoever57 writes: Google UK has come to an agreement with HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) under which it will recognize a larger share of its UK sales in the UK, instead of funnelling them through the Republic of Ireland. In addition, Google will pay 130M UK Pounds in back taxes representing tax on sales since 2005.

5 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And obviously, Ireland will rebate on the taxes by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well the phrasing "come to an agreement" says it all..
    For any normal person you don't come to an agreement with the government, they state how much tax you owe and you have to pay it or you go to jail, there's no negotiation.

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  2. What's in a statement? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google has come to an agreement.
    vs
    Google has agreed to a settlement.
    vs
    Google has been found guilty and are forced...

    What is the point of this? It seems very clear that this is some kind of feel good measure, a public gesture of good will. I wonder if this is part of reducing the heat on governments to close the taxation loopholes that allow this kind of activity to be legal in the first place.

    1. Re:What's in a statement? by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about google executives responding from their prison cells via their lawyers. Now that is the proper headline for multi-million dollar tax cheats. Keep in mind, mass cheating in taxes, results in austerity, where the poorest pay for the richest cheating by suffering and dying as a result of reduced social services and all those involved know this, their greed is killing people.

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  3. Re: Can they afford it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google took $66 billion in revenue last year alone. 9% of that was from the UK. Given that their net is reported as about 10% of that (which may also be "creatively" reported), thats 660M profit last year alone from the UK. This is meant to be 11 years back taxes, so this seems far too low. Sounds like nothing more than a face saving token gesture in an attempt to keep the proles from grumbling about US corporations leeching money out of the UK, while at the same time allowing them to continue with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

  4. Re:UK Pounds? by ledow · · Score: 1, Insightful

    We'll talk when your presidential candidates understand the difference between "race", "religion" and "political idealogy".

    America is a 21st Century country still living with social norms made in the 15th Century (police abuse, civil war levels of personal armament, no healthcare service worth mentioning unless you have money, and wanting to bar all "foreigners" because they don't understand the differences between them).