While we're angry about Amazon, Starbucks, Google and more for appearing to dodge their UK tax responsibilities, US tax authorities have themselves an even bigger target, with Apple branded one of "America's largest tax avoiders." Read More >>
A former Google UK salesman claims to have a massive stash of around 100,000 emails sent and received during his time at the company, which supposedly prove the tech giant has been fiddling its tax returns to artificially lower its stated UK earnings. Read More >>
Featured comment by Someone Else:
"Assuming that this is proven then Google needs to be prosecuted and fined to the full extent possible. But more importantly the rules need to be chang..." More »
New research into the possibly shady world of Amazon UK and its accountant friends in Luxembourg has emerged, with the company paying just £3.2m in corporation tax in the UK last year -- a figure made all the more laughable by the fact it claimed £2.5m in government grants. It's the world's biggest benefit claimant. Read More >>
Featured comment by squidfish:
"It isn't Amazon, or Starbucks or even Jimmy Carr at fault here. Only an idiot would voluntarily pay more tax than they legally need to. Don't talk to ..." More »
France may introduce a one per cent sales tax on all smartphones and tablets sold in the country, with the money raised funnelled off into an arts fund to back the supposedly more intellectual pursuits of film, art and music. Read More >>
When you're a company as big as Apple, saving on tax bills is important — especially when they're in the billions. Fortunately its team of accountants has just managed to save it a cool $9.2 billion (£6 billion). Read More >>
Featured comment by Someone Else:
"Fair enough, to be honest I had forgotten that yesterdays article concerned the new allegations, thought it was just about the morally dubious but leg..." More »
Google's suffering a bit of an 'out of the frying pan into the politician's lap' moment. Having recently been accused of being tax cheats, Google's now apparently a liar as well. Awkward. Apparently, one of the cornerstones in Google's tax argument was that it doesn't have any salespeople in the UK, something job advertisements seem to disagree with. [Reuters] Read More >>
Featured comment by Someone Else:
"Then if taxation is a legal not a moral issue then there is no good or evil in Google's tax payment simply legal or illegal. yet you still call it imm..." More »
Eric Schmidt, Google's talkative executive chairman, has launched a mini offensive over the company's controversial UK tax affairs, claiming Google is a key element of the tech scene that's driving the UK's recovering economy so we ought to be grateful for its presence instead of moaning about its suspiciously low tax bills. Read More >>
Featured comment by spank86:
"no, my argument is that I expect companies to be evil, only google told us they were different, that they were good... so Mr Schmidt should understand..." More »
Blah blah deficit debt cuts reform monetary policy gah. Words. Very important words though -- our new Twitter-friend George's budget determines what the government spends and where for the next year. That has a huge impact on technology, science, and almost everything we care about. Read More >>
Featured comment by milesharrison:
"I looked up the tax rates and now I'm totally confused. Ignore what I said perhaps. "Rate £ per hectolitre per cent of alcohol
in the beer" is £19...." More »
A Tesco. Another Tesco. A boarded up something, and another Tesco. That's what you can expect to see in this ultra-modern version of Monopoly, which takes inspiration from the depressing lows of today's miserable, recession-hit society. Read More >>
After being fined for submitting its own UK tax records late, Twitter's TweetDeck subsidiary is facing being "struck off" the UK business register for continually failing to file its tax return. It has 99 days to avoid being "dissolved" by Companies House. Read More >>
Here's an odd fact. HMRC has the right to monitor what websites you use, see where and when phone calls were placed and know the date and time of your emails. And it made over 14,000 of these snooping requests last year. Read More >>
Featured comment by chrissmith6:
"I agree - If you think about it pragmatically as opposed to on principle then it has no effects on the average taxpayer and is by no means a step in d..." More »
Twitter has finally filed its UK accounts after a bit of a delay, claiming to have made a profit of only £16,500 from its new UK office. To be fair, Twitter only started trading in the UK in May of 2011 with a skeleton staff of hipsters huddled around a hot-desk in London's Silicon Roundabout tech zone, so the figures might be genuine and not just another massive tax dodge. No need for a boycott and mass exodus just yet. [Guardian] Read More >>
Two more tech giants have been caught shamelessly bodging their UK tax submissions, with Twitter accused of ignoring return filing dates and Microsoft said to be paying ZERO tax on a whopping great £1.7 billion of UK online income. Read More >>
The government is set to announce a renewed crackdown on large international tax avoiders, after evidence the big firms gave to the recent Public Accounts Committee hearing was described as "evasive" and "difficult to believe." Read More >>
Featured comment by ScyBy:
"Well yes, they're in tough times now (largely because of high public spending, a collapse in the property market and reduction in consumer spending) a..." More »
Google and Amazon got a bit of a tongue-lashing yesterday over their suspiciously low tax bills in the UK. As part of a public corporate tax witch-hunt, various bigwigs from the companies got dragged up in front of a committee and subjected to some fairly justified and scathing abuse. Read More >>
14 
