International Tax avoiders being probed by UK Accounts Committee

About time, and I hope they get to the bottom of the extent of it - some of the tax some of these companies have paid is shocking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20301381
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20303565
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20288077

So cocky and arrogant as well "I'll check to see if I can share that info with you" !!

I think those who trade in this country should pay tax in this country on any sales and profits made here.

I heard on the radio the other day that some companies set up other companies to whom they pay the cost of 'services' / materials but in actual fact they are just shuffling payments within there own company. In some way this is enabling them to avoid paying tax.

Not watched those clips as I'm at work but companies are consumers just like people are. If Asda's prices are cheaper than Tesco then people will choose to use them. Same applies to nations, companies have an obligation to their share holders to maximise their return and although it might be seen as morally wrong if they fail to make use of arrangements to minimise tax payments they can be seen as negligent.

One easy way for companies to funnel money away to another country is for the "mother company" to charge each national "daughter" company a fee for use of the brand. That will effectively wipe out the vast majority of profit the daughter company makes but boost the profits the mother company makes and they pay tax where their head office is located. Now I don't think that we will ever be able to stop such things happening, so the Government need to have to tackle it in a carrot and stick basis.

1) Give large companies the kind of tax situation which will mean they would rather pay the tax here than elsewhere.

2) For those companies that funnel money away, charge an operating licence in order to have access to UK consumers. Which can be tricky with competition laws and be seen as being protectionist.

Unfortunately these problems are only set to increase, as the digital age moves forward we will see more and more downloads (software, music, e-books etc) with these the supplier and consumer can be in completely different countries and the financial transaction can take place somewhere else entirely in which case where is it that the money should be taxed?

As consumers we need to vote with our feet and boycott these companies. If we do then that will help but I'm guessing that if you find a book 50p cheaper on Amazon than somewhere.

It won't happen Nic - Apple paid less then 2% tax on all it's non-US sales why would they suddenly start paying 20% just because they feel it's fairer then 30%. They won't because they know they can get away with paying less, and they' always come back with 'we have an obligation to our share holders' - yet when asked how funnelling money helped shared holders the guy at Amazon couldn't answer

If companies can pay tax at 1.5% say then surely we are better off having 1.5% of something rather than 100% of nothing. We need to find ways of tailoring the tax system so that we get what we can from international corporations rather than see the money disappear overseas.

If the British public feel that these companies are behaving badly then we MUST boycott their products, I don't buy apple products, I have never drunk at Starbucks and I whine at my wife for ordering from Amazon. I certainly don't buy from them myself and won't own a kindle.

I do however use Android and would hope that someone would remind Google that their motto was "Don't be evil" but then none of us are perfect.

Alas the public seem to have lost sight that the government's money is our money and that by supporting these companies we are ripping ourselves off!

I would rather the govt step in and bring in measures which stops them being able to evade tax. Leaving it to consumers won't work because most of us have little choice but to go with the cheapest, especially in tough times like now.

If some of these companies pull out, their loss - another company will take their place... 30% profit is better than no profit at all

I'm glad the Public Account's Committee are asking about actual UK figures - because we often get ripped off here, with things like iPads and Playstations almost always costing more here than the US - even when they are manufactured and shipped from China

yep whatever the exchange rate as far as purchases go here and in the US £1 = $1