back to article 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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  1. Magani
    Headmaster

    Re the headline

    "Indian asks Nokia for 340 MILLION in tax", you don't seem to mention which particular Indian did the asking.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: Re the headline

      See that "Send Corrections" link. Try it.

      1. Magani
        Headmaster

        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.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Happy

          Re: Re the headline

          This is web 2.0 darling, YOU are the proof reader.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        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

  2. Blofeld's Cat
    Big Brother

    "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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "visited"...

      Surely the words "Finnish" and "phone maker" should have been put in quotes as well...

  3. Silverburn
    Happy

    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"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Indian process

      Sort of, but more like 170m in taxes and the other 170m split between all the bribes.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We should follow their example, we're obviously too soft on big companies.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Agreed, maybe we could outsource our goverment to India, certianly worth a try.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      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??

    2. Dr_N
      Black Helicopters

      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.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey you, corporations, pay yer bloody fair share of tax!

    You know it's right.

    1. Silverburn

      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.

  8. Philomena Cunk
    Megaphone

    Can they pay the fine in Lumias

    They seem to have alot of those around gathering dust....

  9. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

    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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