Google was up before the UK equivalent of a senate hearing just last week and they really laid into Google. It was funny to watch them try and worm their way out of it.
I was watching that on the news this morning, BBC were talking to an ex Google ad salesman from the UK office, and he claims they regularly do deals in the UK, however Google have allegidly been putting down on paper that the deals were done in the taxhavens, and thus werent taxable.
If they are found guilty they have billions in backdated tax to pay, and likely a big fine. It'll also open the flood gates - the EU will be all over this like a rash, and you can guarantee that the big US corporations will have to pay big bucks for such dodgy and poor practices.
So far we're up to:
- Amazon
- Starbucks
- Apple
I daresay a few OEMs will be added to the list, along with the likes of McDonalds, Microsoft, etc.
Someone needs to slap these corporate idiots and pretty damn hard.