George Osborne is keeping the optimism despite the backlash over Google's tax deal in the UK wherein the European Union is gearing up to investigate the £130 million sweetheart deal being illegal state aid or not.
The Guardian reports that the chancellor has already been criticized after hailing the Google UK tax deal victorious. He further impressed on that again today, but gave a broader defense saying the deal was a success because Google has paid its taxes compared to not paying its taxes before he was appointed in his position. He suggests that the giant tech company correctly pays its taxes in accordance to the profit made on its economic activity in the UK.
"My only interest, as the country's chancellor of the exchequer, is to get the best deal for Britain - to bring the jobs here, the businesses here and to make sure that taxes are paid here."
Mirror UK reports that Members of the Parliament reacted with fury when they were shown the data that Google handed £113.3 million to the HM Revenue and Customs for the past nine years since 2005. Records for 2015 have not been revealed yet but it would have amounted to £126 million, almost the same figure with the so-called Google "sweetheart deal".
Wes Streeting, MP for Ilford North said "George Osborne has made us a laughing stock. This just puts into perspective the trivial amount he managed to get."
Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's competition commissioner, said she is ready to look into Google's deal with HMRC after the Scottish National Party wrote to her demanding a probe, as reported by the Daily Mail UK. Among those that will be grilled on February 11 will be the Google executives and tax officials who signed off the £130 million agreement covering 10 years of tax. They will face a panel of MPs on the Commons public accounts committee.
Osborne said he has introduced a concept called diverted profits tax that guarantees Google will pay tax in the future. He further said that there is more to do. "We've got to make sure the international rules catch up and we are leading that effort," he added. According to him, the solution to all of this is to make sure they have got more British companies out there that are great successes in areas like tech.
