Google taxing. A bit.

It does seem astonishing that both Google and the Inland Revenue somehow think a decade of not paying tax in the UK and now suddenly paying £130M – about a 3% tax rate is somehow inspiring. If anything as with Starbucks suddenly about-facing and paying large wodge of tax it does make you wonder what the Board of Directors were doing. Tweaking the tax yield is to be expected – but paying a zero rate of years then a derisory sum when found out? Hardly corporate governance at its best. And worrying that the light-touch regulation that destroyed the banks if not the wider economy is continuing. Only one LIBOR banker jailed despite widespread rigging of the financial rates. And now it turns out that 6 of the main UK companies didn’t pay any tax at all last year. Hopefully the G7 Summit in Japan in May (as Lough Neath began) will end the farce of Double Irish and Dutch Sandwiches and UK Caribbean tax havens and blatant shenanigans such as rebilling Head Offices offshore to reduce profits. Consumers aren’t fooled and have long memories.