Google’s advertisement service (Google Ads) sells adverts all across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Google claims that all their advertisement services are sold through their Dublin office, as to synchronise taxation purposes all into Ireland where taxation is moire favourable for Google.
However, the media community has been sceptical of this and many have accused Google’s UK branch of dodging tax in the United Kingdom. They had previously claimed that Google’s UK team were actively engaged in making sales and thus Google should be paying UK tax on this, they now have some evidence to prove this assertion.
Google claims its UK staff do not sell adverts, they only provide “sales and marketing support” to those dealing with the Dublin office. In the survey created by “The Drum” they claim that of respondents, 80% said they dealt with the Google London branch when making advert sales while 14% used the Dublin office, presumably the rest did not disclose such which one they used or did not know.
In addition, an in-depth LinkedIn analysis of Google UK and London employees suggests that many of their UK staff are actively involved in the sales process. This makes Google’s statements inconsistent with its tax positions, meaning it is likely they are dodging UK tax.
Google wouldn’t be the first high profile company to be dodging UK tax, joining the likes of eBay, Amazon, Costa, Starbucks and many others currently under investigation for tax evasion.
What are your thoughts on this?
I’d like it for the government or the papers to throw down a challenge to any large company to prove that they do actually pay their taxes in full and don’t actively fight them. I bet none of them could.
This is not the only thing Google’s been accused of. Just add it to the never ending list of accusations.