* Barney Jones said Google diverts British profits through Ireland to Bermuda
* Former executive said company 'pulled the wool over the eyes' of HMRC
* Adds to mounting pressure on Google over its tax affairs
* Company says all sales contracts go through its low-tax Ireland office
* Last year, paid just £7.3million in corporation tax on UK turnover of £3billion
A former Google executive turned whistleblower says he has 100,000 emails that expose the 'immoral' tax avoidance scheme used by his former employer.
Barney Jones, who worked for Google from 2002 until 2006, said the company has 'pulled the wool over the eyes of HMRC and the British population'.
He claims Google has a system in place which diverts British profits through Ireland to the Bermuda tax haven and accused the company of 'cheating' the British taxpayer.
The internet giant has been under increasing pressure about allegations of tax avoidance.
Prime Minister David Cameron will lead efforts at next month's G8 summit of world leaders to find ways of preventing multinational firms from exploiting tax loopholes.
He is due to meet Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt tomorrow at the quarterly meeting of the prime minister's Business Advisory Group.
Last week, Matt Brittin, a vice-president of Google, was aggressively questioned by MPs, who accused the company of 'doing evil' by using 'devious, calculated and unethical' tricks to minimise its liabilities.
It paid just £7.3million in corporation tax last year despite having a UK turnover of £3billion.
Yet, Google assert that all its sales are made in low-tax Ireland, rather than the UK, where corporation tax is just 12.5 per cent compared to 23 per cent in Britain.
Mr Jones's earlier testimony to the PAC gave MPs such as chair Margaret Hodge further ammunition for the questioning of Mr Brittin last week.
No comments:
Post a Comment