back to article Google India slapped with £8.7 MILLION tax penalty

Google is facing more embarrassing revelations about its tax dealings after its Indian business was accused of misleading the government, violating accounting rules and slapped with a Rs76 crore (£8.7m) fine. The penalty order, which Google is appealing, relates to the tax year 2008-9 and if upheld will ensure the search giant …

COMMENTS

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  1. mad_dr
    Unhappy

    If only...

    ...the British guvmint had the balls to go after Starbucks, Amazon, eBay, Google, etc and close some of the piss-taking loopholes that they're all exploiting over here...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Any bets

      that it's some retarded EU legislation which is preventing them from fixing the loopholes.

      If they really want the EU to be a single government body, they need to start looking at treating the EU as a single body with certain taxes (like big business etc) applied throughout the whole of the EU, rather than each country setting it themselves. Oh look, suddenly it's no cheaper to funnel your EU taxes to country X because now got the same tax rate.

      1. Matt 21

        Re: Any bets

        I don't think that can be right as France has recently started taxing the big companies a more appropriate rate.

        1. vagabondo
          Unhappy

          Re: Any bets

          My guess is that the reluctance to stop tax avoidance in the UK is probably related to the use of similar tax-dodging schemes by our rich-boy Cabinet club and their cronies.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    chancellor rumoured

    by which time all the big players will have been well-briefed in what those tax avoidance plans are about, and they'll be well-prepared to introduce new, totally, legal ways to go round those (minor, after all) obstacles. And, by the time this, or next government starts thinking about bringing in new legislation to curb that, the big players will be well-prepared to go round those (minor, after all) obstacles. And, by the time...

  3. jorb

    Glaring Gap

    Unfortunately, there's one glaring gap in your comparison of the situation in the UK and India. India is not in the EU and is free to make it's tax laws as it sees fit.

    The UK is in the EU and this sort of transfer/activity between EU members is explicitly allowed, encouraged even, by the treaties which create the EU.

    Dont beleive me? Ask Tim Worstall, he's been quite vocal on the subject.

    In any case, companies have an obligation to minimize the tax they pay (within the law). If you want a moral issue to be outraged about, how about the systematic extortion of money, with menaces, from an entire population.

  4. LPF
    Thumb Down

    Its a single market problem,

    the rules allow you to pay only tax in one EU country, so of course they pick the country with the lowest Tax rate!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: they pick the country with the lowest Tax rate!

      Who wouldn't?

  5. Edwin

    In Google's defense

    India has some of the most dynamic, tortuously complex tax law on the planet. Their sales tax regime is even more complicated than the US system, and more subject to change.

  6. mhenriday
    Boffin

    Interest carousels, distribution fees, tax havens, etc,

    are merely some of the «innovative» means large corporations employ to avoid paying taxes in the jurisdictions in which they earn their incomes. Here in Europe, the EU may well finally be forced by public outrage to crack down on these practices - but don't bet your pension plan on it : lobbyists are as thick on the ground in Brussels as they are in Washington (hardly surprisingly, as the EU economy is larger than that of the US)....

    Henri

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