Comrade Miliband is rushing into declaring war on Google, as the BBC breathlessly reports here. In a sense, Red Ed is only following in the wake of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg, who all queuing up to bash any corporation that dares take advantage of the tax code complexity put in place by…erm..politicians! Anyway, my point is not the blatant posturing of the political class on this issue (that’s just a given in my book and the BBC is not to blame for that) but rather the way in which the BBC plays this story. You have to get to the very last sentence of the article before poor old Google are allowed a comment to defend their impugned integrity. Same with Apple yesterday, the BBC basically have decided these corporations are all “evil” (copyright Saint Margaret Hodge) and so it’s really about punishing them for the temerity of seeking to protect their evil profits from rapacious Governments.
GOOGLING GOOGLE
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Message to Margaret Hodge and many BBC personnel “People who live in glass house shouldn’t throw stones”.
I wonder how many of the politicians and Beeboids shrieking that Google, Apple and various other companies not paying more tax that they are required to by law are busy sending off their personal cheques to HMRC as voluntary additional tax payments?
Perhaps they should pay HMRC all their earnings in excess of the average wage, after all, don’t they think it would be the “moral” thing for them to do?
I wonder how many of them do not employ accountants to ensure they claim every tax allowance possible and claim every penny they can find which they can possibly call “expenses”.
We are all well aware of the tricks and scams used by Beeboids, on the advice and with the connivance of the B-BBC, to reduce their tax liabilities to an absolute minimum and when it comes to politicians, they should concentrate on getting both their Houses clean before pointing the finger at others.
At 7:30 on Today, amidst the BBC-reported “outcry over the low level of corporation tax paid in the UK by Google, Apple and other multinational companies in the UK” and the meeting later today by some bureaucratic detritus from the EU, Evan discussed the quasi-criminality (according to the BBC) of avoiding tax with Flanders. He then “interviewed” Prem Sikka, professor of accountancy at Essex University on how practical it would be to reform the tax system.
Once again Evan (and the Today online schedule) failed to inform the listeners that Sikka (or “Prem” as Evan calls him) is a lefty “tax business until its pips squeak” advocate fronting the Tax “Justice” Network and by no coincidence whatsoever writes on the subject of tax “justice” in the Guardian. The pretence (for it must be pretence; why else is his lobbying persona not disclosed?) that Sikka is some neutral academic who has descended from his ivory tower to deliver the tablets of tax “justice” to the masses is thus preserved.
On this subject I was educated the other day with term new to me ‘Contra Proferentem’. It essentially means that in a contract the scope for muliple interpretations is down to the person who designs the contract word. In regards to tax, it means if the gov does not write it’s tax laws tight enough then the payee only has to comply with the rules as they are written.
Well Ed was the chairman of the Treasury advisory committee. So he had many years to advise McDoom to tighten the tax laws to gain all reasonable taxes. He did not, but now out of power makes a big show that it ought to be done. I am sure this full explanation about Ed’s incompetence will be the headline feature on tonight’s bBC news.
Has the article changed since you posted, David? It is now headed “Google boss Eric Schmidt hits back at Ed Miliband over tax”
It goes on to say: “Google’s boss has told UK politicians to “sort out” the tax system, after criticisms of the internet search giant by Labour leader Ed Miliband.“, which strikes me as reasonably fair.
Yes, it did. You can see the story “evolve” over at News Sniffer.
Thanks DP. I’ve never figured out how to work News Sniffer. It saved Dez, Des or Dess pointing it out, anyway.
‘strikes me as reasonably fair.’
If the bit that so struck you as making it fair was not there in the original, before things ‘moved on’, what then, by way of precedent?
It seems a licence to try any old skewed punt unless called to account, at which point a quick back-up to near impartial reporting is inserted to ensure the archive looks as it should.
Maybe Peter Rippon should include NewsSniffer in his collation duties?
Can’t imagine how Peter Barron, so near and yet so far from returning to the fold, feels.
Conflicted, one supposes.
I would love to see how a bBC version of a search engine would work. – on the other hand, maybe not.
I wonder how many of the BBC journalists reporting on Tax Avoidance – Avoid Tax? Freelance reporters with personal company? Have a ISA? A pension?
If they have any of these then they are just as bad as Google. I support Tax Avoidance. People and Companies should be allowed to keep as much of the money they earn as possible. Governments just waste money.
I presume we’ll now see a post claimed the BBC is biased in favour of companies not paying tax like the rest now that the article headlines with Google’s response and in the first paragraph.
No, don’t suppose we will.
Why would we? The article doesn’t wait until the end to give Mr Miliband’s side of the story. So your comparison doesn’t hold water.
Hahaha, I’m not sure what that’s supposed to even mean, but seems you can have it any way you want.
The original was Miliband’s
attackgentle criticism bookended by praise when Google got something slightly wrong, and now it’s “evolved” into that plus Schmidt’s defense. It seems like the initial angle, when the BBC leapt to report this, was Miliband calling out the tax issue in the face of Cameron letting it slide. Now that’s been pushed further down as the story has “evolved”.We could even suggest that this shows how Beeboids love the Left-wing Google more than they love Miliband, nothing to do with the tax issue. We’d have to compare this to similar stories about Amazon and Starbucks to be sure.
I bet we will not see a report of tax avoidance/evasion on the companies the BBC likes to endlessly advertise. Namely Twitter and the Guardian.
Note: I have no reason to assume twitter evades or avoids tax.
There is a disturbingly common thread to these stories, and that is the Republic of Ireland. This is the country which had to borrow billions from countries like Britain and then repays us by offering corporation tax as low as 2%
To make matters worse they have already announced that they will refuse to co operate with any new laws designed to prevent tax avoidance in a similar way to Luxembourg refusing to give details of individuals suspected of tax evasion (illegal).
Faced with the greed of the Irish it seems that there will be no solution to tax avoidance, and the only way to prevent it will be to boycott those outlets which have physical presence.
Amazing how Starbucks had a change of heart when their sales were affected, although they have failed to pay a single penny of what they promised.
“it seems that there will be no solution to tax avoidance…”
Really? But Radio 4 told me this morning that Ed Miliband was going to say that Labour would unilaterally stop tax avoidance if international agreement couldn’t be reached. Surely he couldn’t have been spouting rubbish to play to the gallery? 😯
As an aside, I hate these “so-and-so is going to say” stories. If he’s briefed everyone, he has said it, as far as I’m concerned. It’s just that he’s going to say it again, to an audience.
On today’s R4 The World At One (TWAT-O) Martha Kearney kept linking tax avoidance and tax evasion. She did, twice, point out that they are different and that evasion is illegal, but in all her posturing and questioning she repeatedly said ‘tax evasion and avoidance’. She also parroted Miliband’s line that companies should pay what is ‘fair’ rather than what is legal.
Presumably this is the new Guardian-bBBC meme, trying to confuse the public between that which is illegal and that which is the product of a complicated tax system, mostly from Gordon Brown.
TWAT-O indeed!
Like MPs said they followed the rules on expenses? It may have been legal but wasn’t necessarily fair was it?
Companies like Google are able to pay the best tax lawayers in the business to get round paying tax.
Who would I rather get the money?
1. The Company who earned it, and created wealth enough to be fleeced for some cream off for the State?
Or
2. The Government who would only piss it up the wall in Harare or Pugins wallpaper for Derry Irvines Mausoleum.
Hope Google pay even less tax next year-it`s a moral duty to avoid, evade and do anything expect open a vein for Milibands pals.
True Tories would “rejoice at that news”.
Oh-and is that the sound of the Liberal elite and Guardianistas now refusing to use the Google search engine by way of protest?
Nah, course not…they rely on it for their gossip and for hounding the likes of MacAlpine, spreading their crap like Monbiot and Harrabin.
Hope Google begins to cut them off…a decent application of Big Brother creepiness, in my book!
It’s a silly point though Chris. We all have to pay taxes and if some work out a way not to pay them then the rest of us have to pay even more including their share.
We all know that Liebour will tax & spend but if the people elect them then that’s democracy for you.
Would you be so happy if as a result of international tax dodging your tax increased by 10% ? I can’t see many being happy with that.
One of the funniest things I just found out is that the Millipede family hypocritically put the family home into a trust so they could avoid paying inheritance tax.
Now how can someone sit there with a straight face while he pontificates about the responsibilities of others.
If some work out a way not to pay taxes, it’s up to the government to legislate accordingly. And perhaps bear in mind that the more complicated you make something, the more loopholes you create.
Don’t know how that landed here. It was a reply to thoughtful. Maybe something to do with posting on my mobile.
No, there have been a lot of ‘orphans’ lately, appearing at the bottom of the thread instead of the comment they were in reply to.
It’s strange but the BBC also “generates” billions of pounds of income (via little or no effort, admittedly) each year yet pays no Corporation Tax.