23/01/2016 BBC Weekend News


23/01/2016

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Good afternoon. The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonald

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says that the ?130 million that Google agreed to pay in tax is

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trivial, compared to what he believes that the company should

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have paid. It follows an inquiry covering the past ten years. Google

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says it wants to ensure it pays the right amount of tax. Here is our

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Business Correspondent. It has almost a monopoly on internet

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everyone is but the tax affairs also dominated Google's life.

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Now it is completed a ?130 million deal to pay British Corporation Tax

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dating back ten years. For some, though, it is not enough.

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I have been campaigning on the issue for 15 years, pressing for action.

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So this is too little too late. At least we have something but it looks

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as though what independent assessors have said, this is paying about 3%

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of tax. Most corporations are paying 20%. Ordinary individuals are paying

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more. Most people will think it unfair.

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Google enjoyed sales of ?4. 6 billion in the UK in 2014, under

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normal circumstances companies would have paid 21% tax on profits. But

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Google rules sales via Ireland and on to the Caribbean, so pays less

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each year than the ?130 million tax deal to cover a decade of accounts.

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Does Google accept it had been paying too little? We were applying

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the rules as it were, that was then, now we are applying the new rules so

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that is more tax. The Chancellor who introduced the

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so-called Google tax, to clamp down on tax avoidance was satisfied with

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the deal. When I was the Chancellor, there

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were some paying little or no tax. We have taken action, now we have

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companies paying tax. I want the message to go out that the taxes are

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low but have to be paid. I expect more companies to follow suit.

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The spotlight is on other large companies, such as Amazon and

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Starbucks. Facebook paid ?4,000 on tax corporation last year, it may

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take a while to close the book on creative tax arrangements.

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Live now to Davos to Kamal Ahmed. Kamal, some say this is unfair and

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peanuts? Well, certainly for Google, it is a company that makes billions

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of pounds of profit each year. ?130 million is certainly not going to

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put much of a dent in that. I think this is more of a debate about

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global tax rules. Frankly, Google has not done anything illegal, nor

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have any of the other companies that have had controversy about their tax

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affairs, Amazon and Facebook. It really is up to the politicians to

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change the rules, if they want to ensure that companies like Google,

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like Facebook, like Amazon, like Starbucks pay more tax in the UK.

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Google certainly believes, and HMRC, the tax authority, say that they are

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correct, that they pay the correct amount of tax given the present tax

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rules. This is an American business paying the majority of its tax in

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America. Not in the UK. So it is up to the politicians to make changes

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there. John McDonald, the Shadow Chancellor is asking for details to

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be published. I spoke to George Osborne, he does not want it to

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happen. Saying that confident shalt of tax affairs is an important

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principle. Three people in Britain have been

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diagnosed with the mosquito borne virus, Zika, linked to a rise in

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birth defects in Brazil. Authorities have travelled to

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several areas but pregnant mothers are being advised not to travel to

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countries where this is reported. are being advised not to travel to

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Four people have been killed in a shooting in Canada. The attack took

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place at La Loche Community School. It has about 900 students. A man has

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been arred and questioned. A call for BT, backed by a

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cross-party grouch of MPs, a report suggesting that open reach fails to

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deliver fast broadband to many areas. BT say that the criticisms

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are misleading. A woman in Worcester claims that she had the lottery

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ticket for the ?33 million jackpot, although put it in the washing

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machine. The woman has sent it to Camelot in the hopes she can claim

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the money. A large blizzard has been piling

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snow into the American East Coast. People have been warned to find a

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safe place and stay there until the storm has passed. The BBC's Laura

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Bicker is in Washington for us now. It looks like a winter wonderland,

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Laura? They are expecting that two feet of snow could have fallen by

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the end of the day. Overnight we have about seven inches here in

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Washington. You can see the state of the road behind me. This is downtown

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DC, travel is almost impossible. Public transport is at a stand

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still. The Metro is closed for the weekend, thousands of flights have

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been cancelled. Passengers have been stranded at airports. They had to

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open emergency shelters on the side of motorways in Kentucky for

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stranded motorists. The advice has always been to get to a safe place

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and stay there if you can for the duration of this storm. We are 12

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hours in. They are expecting it to last for at least 12 hours more.

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They are not sure yet whether or not this will be a record-breaker but it

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certainly could be up there as one of the top worst storms ever to hit

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the nation's capital. Thank you very much, Laura Bicker in

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Washington for us. There is more on today's stories on

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the BBC News Channel, the next news on BBC One is at 5.45pm. Goodbye for

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now. Good afternoon, after a cold and a

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frosty week the temperatures are on the rise.

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