Google will live to regret not paying tax
Ed Lucas
The Times
For what’s supposed to be one of the world’s most innovative companies, Google is “distinctly old-fashioned” in one respect, says Ed Lucas: in its approach to paying fair tax – or rather not paying it, unless forced to by the French authorities. This blithe attitude harks back to the old capitalist ideology which holds that a company’s sole concern is maximising shareholder profit. Even on self-interest grounds, this turns out to be folly. Image matters. Customers like to deal with businesses “that behave decently”. Being green; sponsoring charities; not subcontracting to sweatshops or ripping off suppliers by delaying payment – over time it dawned on managers that such behaviour is essential to preserve a company’s brand. The same now applies to…
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