Thursday, December 13, 2012



So much for "don't be evil"

Google's CEO is proud of the company's tax-cheating:

The head of the internet giant Google has defiantly defended his company’s tax avoidance strategy claiming he was “proud” of the steps it had taken to cut its tax bill which were just “capitalism”.

In an interview in New York Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman, confirmed the company had no intention of paying more to the UK exchequer. Documents filed last month show that Google generated around £2.5 billion in UK sales last year but paid just £6m in corporation tax.

[...]

“I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate,” he said.

The Silicon Valley boss went on to suggest that Google would not turn down the opportunity to draw on the big savings allowed under the law in the countries it operates in: “It’s called capitalism. We are proudly capitalistic. I’m not confused about this.”


So much for "don't be evil". Google is now just another sociopathic multinational, a parasite, stealing from the rest of us by refusing to pay its fair share of the public services it benefits from (and boosting inequality while doing so by funnelling the benefits of that social theft into the pockets of a tiny clique of the ultra-wealthy). Its time they were forced to pay their fair share.