In Britain, multinationals taxed “Google tax” at 25%

    It seems that the slogan “don’t be evil” for Google is in the past and more and more people perceive the company in a completely different sense, personifying with it even such an unpleasant fact as tax evasion.

    The head of the British Treasury, George Osborne, announced that from now on, large multinational companies operating within the United Kingdom would be taxed at 25% of net profit, which was immediately called the “Google tax”, although questions about the diversion of profits to the state with a more loyal tax regime (to Ireland, for example), there are Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks.

    It is likely that the British Treasury really has cause for concern: in 2012, representatives of the Budget Committee expressed bewilderment that Amazon, with 15,000 employees in Britain and a significant number of warehouses, nevertheless, using legal methods, pays taxes in Luxembourg with its more than liberal tax regime. Starbucks is no less cunning - the company’s European headquarters are in Amsterdam, because there are tax credits for it and 220 people work there. Whereas in the UK there are 6,500 people in the state, and for some reason taxes are paid at the place of the company's head office.

    The tax situation at Google seems generally curious. So a member of the Conservative Party, Charlie Elfik calculated, in 2011, the search giant earned 2.5 billion pounds, and managed to pay taxes of only 3.4 million - in other words, about 0.4% of annual income.

    Thus, introducing a “Google tax” on multinational companies, the British authorities believe that they really have reasons for this. So far, the specific list of persons involved in the future list is unknown, and they promise to present it to the public on December 10, as well as the specific mechanism for implementing the tax.

    In this regard, it will also be appropriate to recall that in 2012 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on the EU states to refuse to reduce social spending, and instead to tighten the fight against tax evasion and impose an increased rate on the wealthiest citizens.

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