British MPs have branded Google ‘devious, calculating and unethical’, accusing the search giant of deliberately subverting its motto, ‘don’t be evil’, in order to pay less tax. Infuriated members of the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee lashed out at the company as one of its most senior executives insisted it was not selling advertising in the U.K., but in low-tax Ireland instead.
According to the Independent , the arrangement allowed Google to pay just six million pounds in UK corporation tax in 2011, despite generating more than three billion pounds in advertising revenues in this country. Margaret Hodge, the committee’s chairman, said that the company was using smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax.
Labour leader Ed Miliband increased the pressure on the company, accusing it of operating a culture of corporate irresponsibility and going to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying tax, the report added.
