Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt tells Jon Snow the British government needs to “find a way” to get the economy growing and insists the internet giant pays its taxes “fair and square”.
Google paid £6m in corporation tax in 2011, but Mr Schmidt said the arrangements were “absolutely legally compliant” and it was acting in the same way as other international firms.
He told Channel 4 News that there are “many, many ways” Google is investing in the UK: “The tax regime is the way international taxes work and we pay our taxes and we pay them fair and square.
“Obviously if the tax laws change we would follow that.”
The tax arrangements of multinational firms including Google were heavily criticised by MPs in a scathing report earlier this year.
I am worried about this triple dip and especially the reliance on Europe. Eric Schmidt
The Commons public accounts committee accused Google, Starbucks and Amazon of “using the letter of tax laws both nationally and internationally to immorally minimise their tax obligations”.
Giving evidence before the committee last year, Matt Brittin, CEO of Google UK, insisted the firm complied with the law in the UK and had not breached its own “Do No Evil” mantra.
But committee chairman Margaret Hodge told him: “We are not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral.”
Eric Schmidt said Google had done well in Britain despite the country’s “sluggish recovery” because people were turning to the internet.
But he said it was important that the British government “find a way” to get the economy growing again: “I am worried about this triple dip and especially the reliance on Europe.
“Europe looks like it’s in a long slow period for many years because of the way the euro is structured.”