Google guy on Marr show

Companies are taxed on profits not sales or turnover and it's very simple to ensure a company does not make any profit in one country by moving the profits to another where less tax or none is paid. It's the tax system and tax havens which are to blame but putting it right is not easy as different countries will always have different tax rates. Morally wrong perhaps and a hard pill for Joe Public to swallow but what's the answer?

Oh dear I feel awful ...guilty...
I'm going to send instructions out tomorrow to close the Cayman Islands Bank Account, Coutts Monaco, RBS Gibralter and the Swiss one so I can give all the money to the happy chappies at HMRC to spend it well...
Not forgetting of course those poorly paid honest English MP's for their expense accounts.

I have never understood why countries with tax breaks are not the enemy ?

How would Platini solve the problem?

of course the whole tax system is corrupt but Google are an especially vile organisation.

If it were up to me, I'd ban them from the UK, not only are they ripping off the taxpayers, they're killing small businesses in this country with their business practices (abusing their massive monopoly position), and don't even get me started on their data collection and privacy invasion.

It is not that the tax system is corrupt. It just doesn't work when a company can lose all it's profits by transferring them to a tax haven. Unpleasant as Google are thousands of jobs would be lost if you banned them from the UK and the government would lose all income tax and NI contributions from the workers. Of course these huge multinationals have killed many small businesses but I can't envisage many small search engines starting up in their place. I dislike what is going on as much as anyone else but it's solving the problem which is the tough bit. It's far more complicated than just banning them.

Morally wrong perhaps and a hard pill for Joe Public to swallow but what's the answer?

Rediscovering a genuine link between effort/merit to reward might be a start.
The 'market decides' argument falls on stony ground when the market is manipulated in ways which let greed and opportunism run rampant.

Tax them 'til the pips squeak. And when they go somewhere else to trade - what then?

No jobs.

No Income tax.

No VAT.

No NI.

The socialists dream - no companies making profits and producing wealth.

this producing wealth gets dragged out each time.
Value is lost by opportunists by stripping it right to the quick.
Enterprise doesnt create jobs for the goodwill of society, its actually a by product of increasing profits, the moment the output of an individual is lower than the profit made from them they get sacked.

Anything that ever resembled the collective 'greater good' or was something that the whole had an interest in was converted from asset into product to plunder from or a vehicle to profit from.

Investment always always always results in price increases and increased profit margins, thats not exactly bringing wealth, thats speculating and dipping bread.

Dustybin. You've gone off on a rant. The thread is about finding an equitable and sustainable means of taxing these large multinational companies who can legitimately have huge turnovers but no profit in the UK and therefore pay no tax. It's very complicated because in the real world whatever is done it's still got to be worth their while operating from the UK.

Yes, but thats just the tip of the bigger iceberg which is about creating a backdrop of opportunism moulded to allow greedy people to take out as much as they can within a finite economy.
All countries have been determining tax rules unilaterally under this remit of allowing companies freedoms to operate in under regulated sectors.
That culture has clearly failed and now more universal cross boarder tax rules are being implemented.
Which gives credence to the whole argument that 'one world' governance is a good thing.

life is like a shate sandwich

the more bread you have

the less shate you eat

They dodged tax by saying they were not based in the UK - Now I believe they are spending 1£billion to build a new office in London to emply 5000 - lets see how they fudge the tax on this one when the time comes.

VAT is increased as it is less able to be avoided. The revenue generated from google sales in uk, will have had vat associated. increase online sales VAT to cover the cost lost.
Sure there is a million ways to claw back lost tax revenue. Just no will to do so

You can see where the interests of those in power lies by comparing earnt (paye) and unearnt taxes (capital gains tax) the lower is the one suits those that make the laws

Google is I believe an American company which is where they pay most of their taxes. To lose the UK profits all they do is open up another Google company in say the Caymans where company tax rate is zero. If UK Google makes a million profit Google Cayman simply invoices Google UK for a million pounds of "services" and Google Uk has now made a profit of nil and no tax is due. Simples and totally legal.

Now I believe they are spending 1£billion to build a new office in London to emply 5000

There you go.

Tax them 'til the pips squeak and they'll go and build their new offices somewhere else.

Who's the loser then?

5,000 jobs lost and all that tax VAT and national insurance down the drain.
And 5,000 more to pay for on the dole.

Surely countries that offer tax breaks should be treated with disdain, so they should suffer global sanctions.

it really annoys me is that a British company can't produce something similar to Google, I know there is ask.com but everyone uses Google. As a country we just fall for the greedy American corporations every time, I'm sure americans go out of their way to avoid using foreign companies and we just lap it all up

"Google guy on Marr show"

He was only the PR guy.

well said bllob,we invented the internet and now lie down and  let our country be shafted far and wide.The chinese stopped google,if I recall and I think they may have an alternative,perhaps our govt should explore supporting that possibility.

Jan 31, 2016 -- 5:48PM, Dr Crippen wrote:

Now I believe they are spending 1£billion to build a new office in London to emply 5000 There you go. Tax them 'til the pips squeak and they'll go and build their new offices somewhere else.Who's the loser then? 5,000 jobs lost and all that tax VAT and national insurance down the drain. And 5,000 more to pay for on the dole.

They'd still build it surely, but would just realise slightly less profit on the balance sheet - mainly affecting those poor fat cat share holders having to accept lower dividends every year.

After all, the wage bill, for many of these multi nationals, is largely subsidised by taxation through working tax credits in the first place.

that's exactly the problem, everybody uses Google. They have the market by the balls. A total monopoly in every country apart from China, Russia, and a few other places like North Korea. You see the connection here ?

There are alternatives, Google isn't even the best search engine (in terms of most relevant results), but hardly anyone knows about the alternatives. Their ruthless anti-competitive business practices are allowed to go unchecked in this country (and most other countries).

I have no great love of google so can you suggest another which you can recommend?

DuckDuckGo is very good. It will find most of the stuff you used to find on Google 10 years ago (before they hid it beneath all their crappy ads). It's uncluttered, and best of all, they don't track your search history.

startpage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23318889

ebay alternatives
http://www.ebay-alternatives.co.uk/

Amazon alternatives
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/avoiding-amazon-the-5-best-alternatives-to-the-online-bookseller-giants-10458698.html

Right that's changed my default search engine to DuckDuckGo.

Startpage is good option also, if you want Google results (they power it) without all the advertising crap.

Has anyone tried GMX as an alternative to gmail?
http://www.gmx.co.uk/

Alternatives to facebook
http://time.com/3722915/best-social-networks/

been using GMX (.com and .co.uk) for years. Easy to set up, use, and they don't spy on what you click, visit etc. Basically allows you to be anonymous - no need to give out your phone number or connect to your social media profiles.

Thanks stow_judge

Hound-Dog-2    31 Jan 16 21:06 
"Google guy on Marr show"

He was only the PR guy.



He should be sacked. It was embarrassing to watch him, stutter and squirm. Like a poor contestant on Dragons Den. Hadn't even got basic information to hand.