|
The
Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinizes public spending,
also criticized the tax authority, saying it appeared "to have
settled for less corporation tax from Google than other
countries are willing to accept".
It was "not possible to judge whether a 130 million-pound ($180
million) tax settlement agreed between Google and HMRC is fair
to taxpayers," the Committee said in its report.
Google, now a unit of holding group Alphabet Inc, was not
immediately available for comment.
The internet search giant prompted a political storm last month
when it announced the settlement, which was hailed by British
finance minister George Osborne as a "great success".
The Opposition Labour party described it as "derisory" and said
it showed the government's failure to act against corporate tax
avoidance, a hot topic for austerity-weary Britons.
Google has said it follows the tax rules in every country in
which it operates. But the committee questioned this.
"Google told us that international tax rules are complex and
that it just follows them. This is disingenuous. There is
nothing in the rules that says you must set up two companies in
Ireland and send large royalty payments, via the Netherlands, to
a company that is tax resident in Bermuda," the report said.
Google generated around 24 billion pounds of revenue in Britain
between 2005 and 2015 -- the period covered by the settlement.
The back tax deal brought its total tax bill for the period to
less than 180 million pounds.
"The sum paid by Google seems disproportionately small when
compared with the size of Google’s business in the UK," the
committee said.
The Committee said reports that tax authorities in France and
Italy were seeking much larger sums from Google, raised
questions about whether Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
was being too soft on big companies like Google.
HMRC was not immediately available for comment.
($1 = 0.7193 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru;
Editing by Alexander Smith)
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