Google to pay £24m UK tax charge
Google is to be hit with a multi-million pound tax charge by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
The Sunday Times reports that the web giant will have to pay at least £24m in backdated tax after HMRC carried out a review of its offshore structure.
According to the broadsheet, the bill is related to US shares given to Google staff in London and billed to the company’s Irish subsidiary, thereby reducing tax payments in the UK.
Google, among other US web giants that also operate in the UK, has long faced scrutiny over its UK tax arrangements.
Last summer MPs called for an investigation into the firm’s operations and in September it emerged that the company had paid just £11.6m in corporation tax on revenues of £506m in 2012.
A Google spokesperson is quoted as saying: “Like most multinationals, we pay the bulk of our £1.2bn corporate tax bill where our business originated — in our case the US.
"We’re a significant contributor to the UK economy — having created over 2,000 jobs. In 2013 alone, we invested more than £300m in property in London and tax related to our UK operations totalled more than £150m.”