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| George Osborne’s failed search for Google’s tax George Osborne’s failed search for Google’s tax | |
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| Like many people I was incensed and embarrassed at the absurdly low tax settlement with Google (EU’s warning over Google tax deal row, 29 January). Yet another huge US corporation ducking and weaving to obtain spectacularly favourable concessions in rich European consumer bases. It pays armies of lawyers and accountants to flex their muscles on our hapless government departments with less able negotiators. I don’t just blame Mr Osborne. His team has proved to be a spineless disgrace in negotiations, worn down by relentless pressure from these huge corporations. | Like many people I was incensed and embarrassed at the absurdly low tax settlement with Google (EU’s warning over Google tax deal row, 29 January). Yet another huge US corporation ducking and weaving to obtain spectacularly favourable concessions in rich European consumer bases. It pays armies of lawyers and accountants to flex their muscles on our hapless government departments with less able negotiators. I don’t just blame Mr Osborne. His team has proved to be a spineless disgrace in negotiations, worn down by relentless pressure from these huge corporations. |
| Google is a good example of a corporation that earns mind-boggling revenues in the UK and the rest of Europe, and our tax measures should reflect this now, not in 10 years’ time. Google has run rings round us. If we cancelled Google’s contracts in Europe, it would go into meltdown. That is how important we are and should be used relentlessly in negotiations. | Google is a good example of a corporation that earns mind-boggling revenues in the UK and the rest of Europe, and our tax measures should reflect this now, not in 10 years’ time. Google has run rings round us. If we cancelled Google’s contracts in Europe, it would go into meltdown. That is how important we are and should be used relentlessly in negotiations. |
| If this is how we negotiate, heaven help us with the new trade negotiations being driven mainly by the interests of US corporations and the US government. No wonder negotiations are being held in secret. We are in the process of throwing away our future financial independence and will regret it.David ReynoldsLondon | If this is how we negotiate, heaven help us with the new trade negotiations being driven mainly by the interests of US corporations and the US government. No wonder negotiations are being held in secret. We are in the process of throwing away our future financial independence and will regret it.David ReynoldsLondon |
| • Your editorial on business taxation (Algorithms should settle tax bills not cosy back room deals, 26 January) makes an inexact comparison with individual income tax. If income tax was levelled like corporation tax on the surplus of income over expenditure, with allowances for losses in previous years etc, then HMRC would struggle to cover its own costs never mind raise any revenue. There’s no doubt that businesses and business people pay far too little in tax, which leaves the PAYE taxpayer with an extremely unfair burden. | • Your editorial on business taxation (Algorithms should settle tax bills not cosy back room deals, 26 January) makes an inexact comparison with individual income tax. If income tax was levelled like corporation tax on the surplus of income over expenditure, with allowances for losses in previous years etc, then HMRC would struggle to cover its own costs never mind raise any revenue. There’s no doubt that businesses and business people pay far too little in tax, which leaves the PAYE taxpayer with an extremely unfair burden. |
| To make a fair comparison with income tax means that business tax should be based on turnover not profits. The latter are the product of the business’s accountants’ imagination and usually bear little resemblance to the truth. Furthermore, most company accounts remain unchallenged because HMRC does not have the necessary resources. So anyone with a controlling interest lives off the business as best they can, which relieves them of much of the burden of income tax, so HMRC loses out in another way. | To make a fair comparison with income tax means that business tax should be based on turnover not profits. The latter are the product of the business’s accountants’ imagination and usually bear little resemblance to the truth. Furthermore, most company accounts remain unchallenged because HMRC does not have the necessary resources. So anyone with a controlling interest lives off the business as best they can, which relieves them of much of the burden of income tax, so HMRC loses out in another way. |
| Of course such a sensible change is unlikely to happen as it challenges the vested interests of the accountancy profession and the financial community. Tony WardLoughborough, Leicestershire | Of course such a sensible change is unlikely to happen as it challenges the vested interests of the accountancy profession and the financial community. Tony WardLoughborough, Leicestershire |
| • I’m sure your readers will have picked up that the 3% tax that Google has apparently paid is the usual extractive industries rate paid to developing countries for their exploitation of those countries’ natural resources. That pretty well sums up Osborne’s vision for Britain: a developing country with low-paid wage serfs – how else do you describe someone on a zero hours, minimum wage contract; and with all the profits flowing to multinationals or a tiny, self-perpetuating elite. Have we really got to wait five years to throw the scoundrels out?Simon DigginsRickmansworth, Hertfordshire | • I’m sure your readers will have picked up that the 3% tax that Google has apparently paid is the usual extractive industries rate paid to developing countries for their exploitation of those countries’ natural resources. That pretty well sums up Osborne’s vision for Britain: a developing country with low-paid wage serfs – how else do you describe someone on a zero hours, minimum wage contract; and with all the profits flowing to multinationals or a tiny, self-perpetuating elite. Have we really got to wait five years to throw the scoundrels out?Simon DigginsRickmansworth, Hertfordshire |
| • No commentator I have read has made the blindingly obvious point that the large US internet companies like Google are not only being allowed to get away with a derisory rate of taxation on their presumed profits, but they are extracting vast amounts of wealth from the countries in which they operate. These billions – in Google’s case profits on £6.5bn of sales in the UK – will mostly end up in tax havens benefiting only the already super-rich. | • No commentator I have read has made the blindingly obvious point that the large US internet companies like Google are not only being allowed to get away with a derisory rate of taxation on their presumed profits, but they are extracting vast amounts of wealth from the countries in which they operate. These billions – in Google’s case profits on £6.5bn of sales in the UK – will mostly end up in tax havens benefiting only the already super-rich. |
| The country whose government allows or is forced into accepting this parasitism is left with a few hundred jobs and a measly tax-take. Wake up and feel angry.Brian LewisSt Etienne de Gourgas, France | The country whose government allows or is forced into accepting this parasitism is left with a few hundred jobs and a measly tax-take. Wake up and feel angry.Brian LewisSt Etienne de Gourgas, France |
| • If the chancellor can describe Google’s tax payment of £130m as a “major success”, how would he describe Facebook’s £4,327 for 2014 (Financial, 26 January)?John BaileySt Albans, Hertfordshire | • If the chancellor can describe Google’s tax payment of £130m as a “major success”, how would he describe Facebook’s £4,327 for 2014 (Financial, 26 January)?John BaileySt Albans, Hertfordshire |
| • Could we be told please what percentage of the £130m now paid by Google has already been spent by HMRC on the six-year audit preceding it?Nigel SmallboneGuildford, Surrey | • Could we be told please what percentage of the £130m now paid by Google has already been spent by HMRC on the six-year audit preceding it?Nigel SmallboneGuildford, Surrey |
| • You report that critics of the Google tax deal include Rupert Murdoch, complaining that Cameron is too close to Google. Tom Lehrer’s famous comment that satire died when Henry Kissinger received the Nobel peace prize for bombing Cambodia springs to mind.Rick KempsterWaterlooville, Hampshire | • You report that critics of the Google tax deal include Rupert Murdoch, complaining that Cameron is too close to Google. Tom Lehrer’s famous comment that satire died when Henry Kissinger received the Nobel peace prize for bombing Cambodia springs to mind.Rick KempsterWaterlooville, Hampshire |
| • Google? Bedroom tax? Never let it be said that the Tory government went for the easy target.Duncan GrimmondHarrogate, North Yorkshire | • Google? Bedroom tax? Never let it be said that the Tory government went for the easy target.Duncan GrimmondHarrogate, North Yorkshire |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |