Taxes? Google boss Schmidt will meet PM at Downing Street next week
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt will meet Prime Minister David Cameron next week, just days after the internet giant was roasted by a Commons committee over how it avoids paying hundreds of millions in UK taxes.
Eric Schmidt: Meets PM on Monday
Downing Street confirmed that Schmidt will attend a quarterly meeting of the prime minister's Business Advisory Group at No 10 on Monday.
The Google chief is one of 16 members of the group, established in 2010 as a sounding board for the PM to hear business leaders' concerns and priorities and discuss the government's policies for the economy and growth. Schmidt has regularly taken part in its meetings.
Downing Street said Monday's meeting had been in the diary for some time and was not called in response to the recent controversy over the levels of tax Google pays in the UK, highlighted by the Drum in a survey .
The No 10 spokesman said he was not aware of any plans for multinationals' tax arrangements to be on the agenda.
Google was branded devious, calculating and unethical on Thursday, said the Guardian, as furious MPs stepped up pressure on the search engine over its efforts to shelter its multibillion-pound profits from UK taxes.
Members of the Commons Public Accounts Committee were incredulous over claims that the company – which paid just £6m in corporation tax in 2011 – did not carry out advertising sales in the UK, despite generating more than £3bn a year in revenues.
Vice-president Matt Brittin, Google's head of operations in northern Europe, insisted he stood by evidence he gave last year that all of the company's European sales were routed through its operation in Ireland and so were not liable to UK taxes.
But he was told by the committee chairman, Margaret Hodge: "You are a company that says you do no evil and I think that you do do evil in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax."