Global giants Google have avoided paying tax by using Bermuda as a tax haven, recent reports identify. Google have stashed a staggering £6 billion through Bermuda in 2012, which halved it’s 2011 tax bill. The company paid £6 billion in UK tax last year but funnelled 80% of it’s global revenue through Bermuda.
This has caused David Cameron to call for action to make major corporations and wealthy business owners pay their fair share of tax. In an open letter to the GB summit, Mr Cameron wrote “ I do believe we all have a common interest in being able to tell our taxpayers who work hard and pay their fair share of taxes, that we will make sure others do the same.” 
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has said he is very proud of the way in which the company has arranged to pay as little tax as legally possible, calling it “capitalism”. He was quoted to have said “ We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways. I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that governments offered us to operate.”
Google’s tax arrangements have added fuel to other accusations made by British MP’s about the tax scandals by Starbucks and Amazon for “immorally” minimising it’s tax bills. Google’s UK boss Matt Brittin said the MP’s were to blame for setting the tax rules this way.
What do you think? Should Google pay up?
