The EU’s competition commissioner said Thursday she was prepared to investigate Google’s tax deal with Britain as the US Internet giant insisted it complied with all taxation laws.
The EU’s competition commissioner said Thursday she was prepared to investigate Google’s tax deal with Britain as the US Internet giant insisted it complied with all taxation laws.
Margrethe Vestager said so-called sweetheart deals with the tax authorities were “unfair” and sometimes “illegal”, as a storm continued to swirl in Britain over Google’s deal.
Google announced Friday it was to pay £130 million ($185 million, 170 million euros) in back taxes following a probe into its tax arrangements.
“We should be in a union where everyone has a fair chance,” Vestager told BBC radio.
The European Union’s competition executive said it was too early to say whether Google’s arrangement amounted to a sweetheart deal.
However, “if we find there is something to be concerned about, if someone writes to us and says this is maybe not as it should be, then we will take a look”, she said.
The Opposition Scottish National Party’s economy spokesman Stewart Hosie said they had sent a letter calling for such a probe.
Google defended itself Thursday, saying it met its tax law obligations.
Peter Barron, Google’s communications vice-president, said the company paid the standard 20 per cent corporation tax on the profits generated by its activities in Britain.
“After a six-year audit we are paying the full amount of tax that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs agrees we should pay, including £130 million in additional back tax,” Barron said, in a letter to the Financial Times newspaper.
