Google - UK Corporation Tax Avoidance

Yesterday's Sunday Times carried a story that Google uses its Irish base to avoid £110 million in UK corporation tax. Although UK advertisers deal with a UK company called Google UK Ltd and registered in London, the company treats all revenues as being generated by its Dublin based subsidiary. Google generates £1.25 billion ($1.84 billion) in UK revenues but pays just £600,000 in UK corporation tax.

The Irish Republic levies corporation tax at 12.5% compared to the UK's 28%. However, according to the Times, Google uses subsidiaries based in Bermuda to avoid a further £119 million ($175 million) in Irish corporation tax.

The newspaper, owned partly by Rupert Murdoch's media empire, questions the consistency of Google's "do no evil" motto with such blatant tax avoidance.