Google accused of evading 150mn pounds UK tax last year

Tech giant Google has been accused of evading around 150 million pounds of UK tax last year using clever accounting.

Critics said that Google 11.6million pound in corporation tax on 3billion pounds sales in UK in 2012.

However, Google insists that its UK arm mainly provides marketing services to its offshoot in Ireland, Mirror reports.

A Google spokesman said that like most multinationals, the company also pays the bulk of its 1.2 billion pound corporate tax in the US, where the business originated.

The spokesman further said that the tax paid by Google is more than 19 percent roughly of what a UK-based company would pay adding that the company is also a significant contributor to the UK economy as it has created more than 2,000 jobs.

Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK said that by accounting for the UK that way, Google may have reduced its tax bill by around 150million pounds last year, the report added.