LONDON: Google paid £36m in UK taxes for last year after it agreed a controversial deal with HMRC that saw it register more of its sales in the UK. The American internet giant, which has faced years of criticism over how much it pays to the Exchequer, revealed the payment in accounts published on Friday afternoon. It said it paid “all the taxes due in the UK”.
Account for Google UK Limited revealed profits of £148.8m in the year to June 30, 2016, with revenues reaching £1bn. At the 20pc corporation tax rate, this generated a bill of £29.8m, while deferred taxes from previous years and other adjustments brought the total bill up to £36.4m. “As an international business, we pay the majority of our taxes in our home country, as well as all the taxes due in the UK,” a Google spokesman said. “We have recently announced significant new investment in the UK, including new offices in Kings Cross for 7,000 staff.” Buried in the accounts is a “corporation tax receivable”, a £31.4m payment from HMRC which acts as a refund, for instance if the firm has over-paid on pre-paid, estimated corporation tax bills.
In January last year, Google agreed a deal with HMRC that saw it pay £130m in taxes dating back to 2005. It came after the tax office had spent years investigating large multinational corporations. Google had previously registered much of its UK sales in Ireland, reducing its profits and taxes in Britain. Under the deal agreed last year, Google UK now registers sales from British advertisers. The change came after the Treasury introduced a so-called “Google tax” that blocks companies from shifting profits overseas. Facebook has also pledged to pay more in UK tax by booking sales in Britain, while Snapchat has said it will register non-US advertising revenue to its UK subsidiary. Google UK’s annual profits of £148.8m and revenue of £1bn compared to £110.8m and £1.2bn in the 18 months to June 30, 2015, a longer accounting period due to a change in its financial year. Staff in the UK rose by 614 to 2,943. Google recently announced that it plans to hire thousands of new staff at its UK headquarters in King’s Cross, in what was seen as a vote of confidence in the UK after the Brexit vote.
