<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Global firms, such as Amazon and Google, that avoid paying UK tax are &amp;#039;insulting&amp;#039; British businesses, an influential committee of MPs has said.  Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said today that more must be done to prevent the &amp;quot;outrageous&amp;quot; practice of businesses generating huge amounts of income in the UK but paying &amp;quot;little or no corporation tax&amp;quot;.    Last month, representatives from Amazon, Google and coffee shop chain Starbucks were grilled by the PAC over revelations that they are involved in systems that mean they pay almost no UK tax despite generating millions in sales here.  Starbucks, for example, sold almost \u00A3400 million of goods in the UK last year, but paid no income tax, as all the money was channelled through its sister company in the Netherlands, and classed as royalties.  Amazon and Google have also been accused of re-routing their UK earnings through off-shore locations where the tax rate is lower, such as Luxembourg and Ireland. The practice is not illegal and the companies are well within their rights to do so under current tax laws.  But in a statement, Hodge said: &amp;quot;Global companies with huge operations in the UK generating significant amounts of income are getting away with paying little or no corporation tax here.  &amp;quot;This is outrageous and an insult to British businesses and individuals who pay their fair share.&amp;quot;  She added that corporation tax has &amp;quot;fallen at a time when securing proper income from taxes is more vital than ever&amp;quot;, referring to the ongoing economic downturn.  In its report, the PAC said that it believes that the practice of tax avoidance is &amp;quot;widespread&amp;quot; and that Her Majesty&amp;#039;s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is &amp;quot;not taking sufficiently aggressive action to assess and collect the appropriate amount of corporation tax from these multinationals&amp;quot;.  The committee said that if companies &amp;quot;do not pay their fair share of tax, other taxpayers have to pay more&amp;quot;. This means that &amp;quot;both HMRC and corporate taxpayers are failing to meet the legitimate public expectations from the tax system&amp;quot;.  But the MPs warned that there is &amp;quot;little credible information&amp;quot; on what is actually going on, and the evidence supplied to the PAC by companies was &amp;quot;unconvincing and, in some cases, evasive&amp;quot;.  HMRC had also &amp;quot;lacked clarity&amp;quot; when it tried to explain its approach to enforcing the corporation tax regime, the MPs said. &amp;quot;The inescapable conclusion is that multinationals are using structures and exploiting current tax legislation to move offshore profits that are clearly generated from economic activity in the UK,&amp;quot; Hodge added.  &amp;quot;HMRC should be challenging this but its response so far to these big businesses and their aggressive tax planning has lacked determination and looks way too lenient. Policing the tax system must be at the heart of what HMRC does.&amp;quot; Hodge said that HMRC must be more &amp;quot;aggressive and assertive in confronting corporate tax avoidance&amp;quot;, as this is essential for the public credibility of both the department and the tax system as a whole.  But she also warned that new legislation may be required to ensure multinationals &amp;quot;report their tax practices transparently&amp;quot;, and offenders could even be &amp;quot;publicly named and shamed&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;Confidence in our tax system can only be maintained if every company and every individual is seen to be paying their fair share. That requires HMRC to act firmly now,&amp;quot; she stated.  &amp;quot;But the drive to make these companies live up to their obligations will have to be conducted on a number of fronts. These include possible legislative change within the UK and efforts to increase international co-operation.  &amp;quot;The multinationals should be required to report their tax practices transparently. Prosecutions should be mounted where necessary and offenders should be publicly named and shamed. &amp;quot;We consider that paying an appropriate amount of tax in the country in which profits are made is not only a matter of basic economics. It is also a matter of morality. The UK should be taking the lead in making this point.&amp;quot;  Chancellor George Osborne will unveil details later on of \u00A3154m of additional funding to help tackle tax avoidance and evasion. This will be used to hire extra staff at HMRC to investigate the high earners and global firms who aggressively avoid paying tax.  But after the PAC report was published, Amazon issued a statement insisting that it paid all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction where it operated. &amp;quot;Amazon EU serves tens of millions of customers and sellers throughout Europe from multiple consumer websites, in a number of languages, dispatching products to all 27 countries in the EU,&amp;quot; it added. &amp;quot;We have a single European headquarters in Luxembourg with hundreds of employees to manage this complex operation.&amp;quot; In its own statement, Starbucks said: &amp;quot;We have listened to feedback from our customers and employees, and understand that to maintain and further build public trust we need to do more. &amp;quot;As part of this we are looking at our tax approach in the UK. The company has been in discussions with HMRC for some time and is also in talks with the Treasury.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/news/a442428/google-amazon-insulting-uk-with-tax-strategy/>