LONDON: The British government has imposed a new tax rate on multinational companies that seek to avoid paying their fair share to Treasury coffers.
The levy – nicknamed the ”Google tax” because of the high number of technology firms seeking to avoid tax – will come into force in April, finance minister George Osborne said in a budget update.
“Today I am introducing a 25-percent tax on profits generated by multinationals from economic activity here in the UK which they then artificially shift out of the country,” Osborne told lawmakers in his so-called autumn statement. “That’s not fair to other British firms. It’s not fair to the British people either. Today we’re putting a stop to it.”
