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