WASHINGTON: Microsoft, the Charming Company that force-fed people Windows 10, has turned out to be quite an accountancy player, and has made a deal with HMRC that saved £100m in tax, according to The Sunday Times.
How the other half live, eh? Normal people just get taxed, but multimillion pound corporations don’t seem to suffer in the same way. Google has the sort of attitude to tax that vegans have to pork scratchings, as do firms like Amazon and Apple.
We’ve been through all this before, and the companies have all claimed that they pay what is right and fair. This means that our tax system is fuc… favours the big guys.
The Sunday Times tax exposé only furthers this impression and we read it over breakfast and through gritted teeth.
The paper reported that the paupers at Microsoft (Bill Gates is apparently reduced to drinking his own poo water) has routed £8bn in sales via Ireland to avoid the sort of bills that this would normally involve.
This deal with HMRC has saved the firm £100m a year, according to the report, which will presumably be used to pay for the long-term storage of Zune devices and shirts that Steve Ballmer sweated through.
The deal was signed in 2012 and lasts until 2017. The report said that HMRC has the same arrangement with over 100 other companies.
We asked Microsoft for a statement on this and, in case you are too incandescent with rage to read it in full, we can tell you that the firm D.N.G.A.F.
Microsoft complies with all rules and regulations worldwide, including in Ireland and the UK. Our European business, production and distribution is centralised in Ireland and has been since the early 1990s,” the company said.
“Microsoft UK earns a commission similar to what a third party would receive for performing marketing services for Microsoft Ireland and pays tax on its income earned in the UK.”
Seems fair. Let’s see what HMRC has to say. The government agency does not say much tangible, but it is apparently cool with such arrangements.
“No company will pay a single penny less in tax because of Advance Payments Agreements,” said a spokesperson.
“These simply set out how the tax rules will apply on complex transactions ahead of time and we keep them under constant review.” µ
