14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Eric Schmidt is “perplexed” by the ongoing debate over the company’s tax paying in the UK.
Schmidt says that the company did what was “legally required,” which was to pay the right amount of taxes, BBC reports.
Between 2006 and 2011, Google paid £10 million ($15.1 million/€11.7 million) in taxes, but British authorities are now investigating the company, saying that they should have paid more.
Schmidt said that it was the government’s job to change the tax system, if it wanted companies to pay higher taxes.
"What we are doing is legal. I'm rather perplexed by this debate, which has been going in the UK for some time, because I view taxes as not optional. I view that you should pay the taxes that are legally required. It's not a debate. You pay the taxes,” the Google chairman said.
He went on to say that if the British system changes the tax laws, then the company will comply.
Google came under fire as most of its UK sales are routed through Ireland, a path that was taken by other Internet giants as well, including Yahoo and Apple.
Furthermore, the British digital and media buying community doesn’t agree with the fact that the UK Google team has not been selling advertising, which was one of the company’s main arguments regarding the low taxes they’ve paid for the past few years.
Schmidt has previously said that corporate taxes should be paid in the country where it conducts economic activity and takes risk, rather than where products are consumed, calling out for an international tax reform.
As mentioned, Google isn’t the only company that authorities are pointing fingers at for paying few taxes. Amazon is also one of the companies that have been targeted recently.
Apple and Yahoo too have made the list with pretty much the same plan – routing the transactions through Dublin.