“Under HMRC’s [Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] rules, companies are only required
to pay tax on where business is booked, not where a transaction actually takes place.
Google has argued it is predominantly based in the US and Ireland for taxation purposes,
despite investing hundreds of millions of pounds in buying property in the UK for its
businesses here” (Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 29th October, 2013).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10408129/Tax-officialsface-Google-questions.html
It has been suggested that the behaviour of Google vis-à-vis paying UK corporation tax is
‘immoral’.
Required:
Critically analyse the behaviour of Google in the context of the UK tax environment.
Your response should a consideration of UK tax law, international aspects of tax regulation,
other contemporary tax planning cases, professional ethics for tax accountants and ethics in
the wider business community.
