India asks Nokia for £340 million in tax
India has added itself to the growing list of nations putting extra pressure on global tech titans over tax-related matters, after reportedly tapping Nokia on the shoulder regarding irregularities which could total 30bn Rs (£340m). A spokesman for the Finnish phone maker told The Hindu it was “visited” by tax officials at the …
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Re the headline
"Indian asks Nokia for 340 MILLION in tax", you don't seem to mention which particular Indian did the asking.
Re: Re the headline
See that "Send Corrections" link. Try it.
Re: Re the headline
I know it's there, but I'm getting a bit disappointed in the lack of proofreading on El Reg of late.
Re: Re the headline
This is web 2.0 darling, YOU are the proof reader.
Re: "Send Corrections" link
I have tried it.
It's about as good as the equivalent on the BBC's News site.
At least in the comments we can share a giggle and a groan
"visited"...
"... the Finnish phone maker told The Hindu it was “visited” by tax officials ..."
Putting the word "visited" in quotes makes me suspect that three ghosts tax officials turned up sequentially on Christmas Eve, wanting to discuss tax past, tax present and tax future.
Re: "visited"...
Surely the words "Finnish" and "phone maker" should have been put in quotes as well...
Indian process
1. Place bill for 340m
2. Barter loudly for 20 minutes, with much hand waving and posturing
3. Settle on bill for £24.50 plus £1,000 in cash to each inspector for their "expenses"
Re: Indian process
Sort of, but more like 170m in taxes and the other 170m split between all the bribes.
We should follow their example, we're obviously too soft on big companies.
Agreed, maybe we could outsource our goverment to India, certianly worth a try.
Ah yes, India..
The desperatley poor country that despite recieving beeelions in handouts, having an advanced space program and now acting as tax collectors, never seems to have enough money to provide for its people...
Funny that....
Re: Ah yes, India..
That's just silly. It's like saying that the UK should spend nothing on say the military until child poverty in the UK completely ends. Now if there were no social care packages or reforms at all, but just a massive space and defence program (a la North Korea, as far as one can tell), you would have a point. But that is most certainly not the case.
Also unlike the UK, there is an ambition to be independent and self sufficient in India. Space technology for eg, flows into the defence industry. That's less money being spent buying European and American weapons in the future, and possibly more revenue in the future as the West invests less in such industries. The UK already pretty much depends on America, and all the "special friend" status is nothing but a glorified term for "America's bitch". Off the top of my head, the Iraq war and extradition come to my mind.
And as far as I am aware there have been no EU style bailouts or deficit budgets to the order of the UK in India.
India still has a long way to go, but I don't think someone, certainly not in the UK, gets to complain about what and how it is going about its business.
The UK also has a fair amount of work to do, and worse, is not moving in the right direction.
Funny that??
Re: Ah yes, India..
"The desperatley poor country that despite recieving beeelions in handouts"
The emerging country that gets a lot of kickbacks in the form of foreign government "aid" to purchase from EU/US arms firms.
Fixed that for you.
Yes and No
In India's case there will be politicians and civil servants taking kickbacks to settle the matter. The reason foreign companies mostly suffer is probably because of the Bribery and Corruption Act and well foreign companies probably try harder to avoid tax, and are of more interest to western news.
As for the UK, I think it is the American companies that seem to get away with it more often than not. I personally think that there is a general perception in the UK that the Americans are always right. HMRC (and the government for that matter) probably looks at these American companies with awe.
Hey you, corporations, pay yer bloody fair share of tax!
You know it's right.
Re: Hey you, corporations, pay yer bloody fair share of tax!
Turns out they all usually pay the correct amount of tax. Whether you think its fair or not is another issue.
As usual: avoidance != evasion.
Can they pay the fine in Lumias
They seem to have alot of those around gathering dust....
If I remember the story properly from the BBC
What is happening here is that the Indian government is retrospectively changing the tax rules, and then expecting foreign companies on just roll over and pay more tax for years they already thought were closed. It is a policy that is specifically designed to extract more money from non-Indian companies that are operating in India.
It's within what a government can do, but is clearly not going to make companies operating in India happy.
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