I think this is a change from that honestly, if I'm remembering correctly UK tax law was changed so that companies deemed to be going against the spirit of the law after an audit could be forced to pay the appropriate amount of tax - I imagine this is a consequence of that.
This is an odd settlement though as it sort of ignores the law. Corporation tax is based on profits - which Google offshore to avoid UK tax (and many other places). Here they have said to them we see what you're doing - make nice. So they have drawn up a special formula (secret too) that pays a percentage of UK revenues - just for Google!
And of course whilst secret it leaves Google open to manipulate their UK sales too - as whilst they clam some Billions in their UK accounts in their US accounts they claim many Billions more.
With their now secret formula the UK public will never be able to pin them down when questioning what they are paying.
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I think this is a change from that honestly, if I'm remembering correctly UK tax law was changed so that companies deemed to be going against the spirit of the law after an audit could be forced to pay the appropriate amount of tax - I imagine this is a consequence of that.
This is an odd settlement though as it sort of ignores the law. Corporation tax is based on profits - which Google offshore to avoid UK tax (and many other places). Here they have said to them we see what you're doing - make nice. So they have drawn up a special formula (secret too) that pays a percentage of UK revenues - just for Google!
And of course whilst secret it leaves Google open to manipulate their UK sales too - as whilst they clam some Billions in their UK accounts in their US accounts they claim many Billions more.
With their now secret formula the UK public will never be able to pin them down when questioning what they are paying.
Why? That's a core part of the definition of what it means to have a common-law legal system
Well that was my memory of it, how they put it can be read here, section B2.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...