Google paid £97m in tax for 2005-14 – not £130m. Your Conservative Government has lied to you again

Last Updated: February 5, 2016By

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This is quite hard to understand but the gist is that HM Revenue and Customs has allowed Google to say part of its tax payment was covered by share options to staff that the company claimed were exempt. But HMRC has ruled that out in previous negotiations with other major US corporations.

So the taxman has mistakenly allowed Google to get away with paying £97 million on £7.2 billion of profit between 2005 and 2014. That’s a rate of just 1.3 per cent.

And George Osborne wants you to think that is a good deal.

George Osborne’s claim that the government secured a major corporation tax deal with Google appear to be unravelling after it emerged that a quarter of the £130m recovered by HM Revenue & Customs related to the US company’s share options scheme.

Filings by Google’s UK subsidiary show that £33m of the funds paid to the Treasury followed a wrangle over share options handed to staff, which the US business had argued were exempt from UK tax.

The company’s accounts show that the government was only able to claw back less than £100m in corporation tax from Google for the 2005-2014 period, and not the £130m the chancellor claimed. MPs and foreign governments have criticised the deal for allowing Google to generate billions of pounds in profits from its UK business and pay little corporation tax.

Richard Murphy, a tax expert who advises the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on economic policy, said most major US corporations had attempted to depress their tax bills by charging subsidiaries the cost of share options to staff, and that all had been ruled out by HMRC.

He said it was unclear why HMRC had failed until now to force Google to comply. “What was already a poor deal for the government is now looking even worse,” Murphy said. “And it looks like HMRC’s mess-up. I would say it clearly shows that HMRC is under-resourced and is struggling to cope in negotiations with major corporations.”

Source: Google tax deal under fire as it emerges figure included share options scheme | Technology | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. Jeffery Davies February 5, 2016 at 6:16 am - Reply

    Well whot do you expect from a bunch of fraudulent crooks who line their pockets while fleecing the poor
    truth it seems is for others not for them

  2. Terry Davies February 5, 2016 at 9:35 am - Reply

    bankers, amazon, google, the EU migrants, the NHS, bombing innocents in Syria, attacking the disabled, and Unions, increasing taxes for the poor, reducing it for the wealthy, flooding and treatment of the victims:
    Iraq, saudi arabia support selling arms despite lack of human rights given in saudi :multiple privatisations including the hunt endeavours to reduce public support for doctors and NHS. :
    Supporting Fracking, dodgy dealings with Nuclear energy companies :
    welfare reforms including the Universal credit which in the fullness of time will become a nightmare for the government both costly to implement and socially problematic:
    the bedroom tax:
    Foi restrictions
    HOW DO TORIES STAY IN POWER CONSIDERING THE LIES TOLD TO THEIR VOTERS???

  3. A-Brightfuture February 5, 2016 at 9:50 am - Reply

    Anything is possible with a PO box 666 situated in Bermuda. I can only assume that we are dealing with “Damien Omen 111”. Osborne does have an uncanny resemblance.

    The Devil rides out… again.

  4. mohandeer February 5, 2016 at 10:08 am - Reply

    George Osborne in my opinion, is a crook who should be on charges for defrauding British taxpayers and lying about it. In fact the current government should all be in the dock for profiting from their fraudulent policies and the lies they have told us in covering up their mistakes and deliberate cooking of the books.

  5. Tim February 5, 2016 at 2:27 pm - Reply

    Labour were in power for five of those years, Mike, and also did bugger all about the situation.

    • Mike Sivier February 5, 2016 at 6:52 pm - Reply

      Two wrongs don’t make a right, Tim.
      Just because Labour missed an opportunity, that doesn’t give the Conservatives any reason to do the same.

  6. mrmarcpc February 5, 2016 at 3:23 pm - Reply

    And will this be brought to the public’s attention, not likely, should print this and get the truth out there!

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