Google, Amazon, Starbucks Etc. And Tax
Google’s Eric Schmidt says he is perplexed in this article about the debate on his company’s tax status.
I’m not, as what these companies do is fraud.
Not necessarily on Corporation Tax, but with respect to VAT.
If say I go into John Lewis and buy say a television, I will pay VAT on the purchase. If I buy it from Amazon, I’ll probably pay some fiddled VAT rate, which will make it cheaper.
My belief is that by doing transfers like this, companies like Amazon are hurting genuine UK businesses. Andy Street of John Lewis is saying just that here.
So it should be that if you buy a television and it’s delivered in the UK, then the VAT rate should be 20%.
But Eric Schmidt is against this and is quoted in the BBC article.
The Google chairman has previously argued that corporate taxes should be paid on a company’s profits, not revenues, and should be levied in the country where it conducts economic activity and takes risks, rather than where products are consumed.
The trouble with Google, is there is no alternative, to some of the things they do.
On the other hand, I don’t use Amazon, Apple, Starbucks and quite a few other companies.
The Anonymous Widower 
I think everyone knows how much tax they should be paying but then again, if the government allows this to happen then anyone would be a bit silly to pay back more tax than they think they’re supposed to be doing. The government needs to sort these psuedo loopholes out.
Comment by Alwyn | May 28, 2013 |
As I said, I( don’t think the Corporation Tax is the serious one, but it’s the way they take advantage of the VAT rules, that makes it difficult for British companies to compete.
I’m fairly certain, that if a British company found a way of lowering sales tax in the States they’d be banned.
Comment by AnonW | May 28, 2013 |