UK parliamentary committee to quiz Google again over UK sales

UK parliament seems concerned  that the search engine Google might not have told  the whole truth the last time it showed up to represent its case on its paltry tax payments in t he UK (See: Schmidt defends Google's low tax payments). 

The tech giant told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that its sales to UK customers were made from offices based in the Dublin so that it did not have to pay much tax in the UK.

The November hearing saw Google's European chief Matt Brittin tell the committee that nobody in the UK sold anything. He added that the company employed "a couple of hundred" staff at its Europe headquarters in Dublin, who oversaw sales to the UK.

The outfit was though discovered by Reuters journalists to have hired sales staff in London. Descriptions of jobs within the company, including role as sales search lead for Google subsidiary DoubleClick, outlined responsibilities including "meeting or exceeding aggressive quarterly and annual sales targets". Job postings included such tasks as "closing strategic and revenue deals" and reaching "quarterly sales quotas" in their description were also uncovered.

According to director for external relations Peter Barron, Matt Brittin denied lying to the PAC. He and pointed out that Google did comply with all the tax rules in the UK. The internet search giant however admitted that the wording of some job adverts may have been confusing. Barron said staff in the UK was there to market the company as an advertising channel rather than to finalise any deals with customers.

Meanwhile, according to commentators, parliament would be hardly pleased to have been allegedly misled by the company and would need to clear the matter up.

Margaret Hodge, head of the PAC, said that the committee needed to look at Google's accounting practices again.

She added, the committee would summon the executives to give them a chance to explain themselves and to ensure that what they said the first time around was not being economical with the truth.

Google's accountants Ernst & Young would also need to answer some tough questions. This is because John Dixon, head of tax policy at the auditor, told the committee that his staff visited client offices to ensure compliance with UK tax laws.

According to Hodge, Dixon's evidence had been clear and unambiguous, and Ernst & Young would have questions to answer about whether they were being completely open with the committee.