New Google Tax Deal Does Not Silence Critics

Under a great deal of pressure, Google buckled and agreed it would pay millions to the government of the UK in back taxes. However, critics of the search giant remain unsatisfied.

Google is the most recent global company targeted over taxes and it agreed to pay over £130 million or $185 million that covers taxes that were unpaid since 2005.

The company is also going to start paying taxes on the sales from its advertisers based in the United Kingdom to reflect its size and scope in Britain, said Google.

While the tax payment in arrears might look quite big, many have said it was not enough.

On member of the Labour Party, the current opposition to the government said that tax authorities in Britain needed to publish the details of the deal with Google.

Others tweeted similar comments with one person who said the deal seemed to be state-sanctioned tax evasion.

A lawmaker in the UK who is the chair of the public account committee said she was going to ask tax officials as well as Google to give an explanation of the agreement to her committee.

Public anger has mounted for years as the details have being emerging of how the large multinational corporations used complicated structures in order to dodge paying taxes within certain countries.

One UK organization estimates that the loopholes have allowed businesses to avoid tax payments of more than $240 billion annually across the globe.

In 2013, the UK public accounts committee issued a study that focused on the corporate taxes of Google. The report showed that whistleblowers revealed inconsistencies in the company’s structure that raised serious doubt about it was lawful in it actions on the way it was paying taxes across the UK.

The reports, combined with government budgets causing pressure during austerity times, encouraged leaders to agree to a package of global reforms in taxes last November. These new rules are forcing countries to share additional information about taxes to ensure that companies are pay a fair share.