23/01/2016 BBC Weekend News

A row breaks out over Google's payment of ?130 million

The sum covers money Google owed since 2005.

The Chancellor said it vindicated the Government's approach to tax.

A mammoth snowfall in the eastern United States leaves at least 11

people dead and paralyses road and rail links.

Calls tonight for an independent investigation, after allegations

that Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service tried to cover

up evidence of corruption amongst some officers.

And Johanna Konta joins Andy Murray in the last 16

of the Australian Open, the first British woman to go

A row has broken out in Westminster over Google's deal with the tax

authorities to pay ?130 million in retrospective tax

Labour called the sum "derisory" and they want it investigated

But the Chancellor, George Osborne, said the deal was a vindication

Here's our business correspondent, Joe Lynam.

OK, Google, how much tax does Google play in Britain?

Google's tax affairs are quite a popular search item in the UK,

especially now it's agreed to pay ?130 million of back taxes to HMRC,

but there are some who feel that's a fraction of what should

I've been campaigning on this issue for the last 15 years.

Under the last Government and this Government,

But, to be frank, it looks as though what independent assessors have

said, this is only paying about 3% of tax.

Most corporations are paying 20%, ordinary individuals are paying much

So, I think, most people will just think it's unfair.

Google enjoyed sales of ?4.6 billion in the UK in 2014.

Under normal circumstances, companies would have paid 21% tax

Because Google routes its UK sales via Ireland and then

on to the Caribbean, it pays much less each year

than this ?130 million tax deal, which covers a decade of accounts.

So does Google now accept it had been paying too little?

We were applying the rules as there were, that was then.

Now we're going to be applying the new rules,

which means we will be paying more tax.

Britain accounts for 10% of Google's total sales but only a sliver

Is getting the company to pay more tax merely an effort

When I became Chancellor, there were some companies that paid

That rightly caused a lot of public anger.

Now we have companies like Google paying tax,

and I want the message to go out that in Britain,

taxes are low, but they have to be paid and I expect more companies

Apple - the world's largest company, Amazon -

the biggest online retailer, Starbucks - the number-one coffee

franchise, are all under the spotlight.

Facebook paid only ?4,000 in UK corporation taxes last year.

It may take a while to close the book on creative tax

Let's join our economics editor, Kamal Ahmed, who led with the story

and who's at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

How fair is the criticism of the deal?

Well, Rita, I rather difficult to talk about

fairness, a rather subjective word, when you're talking about

fairness, a rather subjective word, when you're talking about tax law. I

suppose Google always thought to itself it might get a bit of

criticism after making this announcement last night. HMRC

probably similar. Probably Google of course -- the problem with Google is

that it makes billions of pounds of profit all over the world. So ?130

million doesn't seem like that much. It's the kind of figure it might pay

senior executives over the same amount of time. Google, when it

comes to fairness, might point out a couple of things, though. It is an

American company. That means it is taxed in America. That's where it

pays the majority of its tax. That would be the same in fact for any

British business operating abroad. British businesses pay most of their

tax in the UK. That's how the global tax system works. Google, of course,

also operates in the European Union, out of London. That means it is

allowed to head quarter in Dublin, where the taxes are far lower.

That's part of the EU single market. No laws broken there. Also the

question is, it's not just Google that is facing controversy over the

issue of tax. Amazon, Facebook, Starbucks would probably finish

Google with one point, 2014 Google paid over ?20 million of corporation

tax to HMRC in that same year. Facebook paid ?4,000. A question of

fairness, Google might point to those numbers and say there's quite

a difference. Many thanks. Emergencies have been

declared in 11 US states, by a huge blizzard,

in which at least 11 Parts of the eastern United States

have received as much as 28 inches Road, rail and air travel has been

paralysed, and tens of millions Our correspondent, Laura Bicker,

is in Washington. Laura, how much worse is it likely

to get? I think that's the question many people are trying to ask. Here

we are, 30 hours in, and we're still in blizzard-like conditions. As for

the amount of snowfall, at Dulles airport, we had over 23 inches of

snow. In Virginia over 30 inches. These are near record-breaking

amounts and still it continues to fall.

The battle has begun as this blizzard enters its final hours,

there are attempts to try to clear-up to two feet of snow

In New York, where the snow's been worse than forecast,

All travel is now banned in the city.

If you drive on the roads, you'll be arrested.

People have to heed these warnings now and immediately get home

and again the NYPD will enforce this travel ban.

In New Jersey, the fight Waz against flooding.

Freezing waters from a high tide, not seen since Hurricane

Sandy, flowed into seaside resorts and thousands lost power.

Airports along the east coast felt abandoned as over 7,000 flights

were cancelled and those who tried to drive struggled.

In Kentucky, 3,000 cars were stuck on a motorway for hours.

There were similar scenes in Pennsylvania where motorists had

been stuck since Friday night, including a college basketball

The bus just stopped and we're told, yeah, there's an accident up ahead

and we're going to be sitting here for a while.

The snow is really picking up I've never seen snow like this,

like coming from England, so I didn't really know

The snowstorm has transformed the landscape of 20 states.

One in seven Americans will wake up to around a foot of snow.

In Washington the blizzard has been one of the worst

Turning its famous view of the White House into

But there are some who simply cannot hide their joy at a snow day.

This is one of the few enjoying himself and doing his own particular

dance through the worst of this weather.

The forecast is for this snow to continue into the early hours of

Sunday morning. Then the sun comes out. But that is when the clean-up

must begin. And that could take both some time and be expensive.

Thank you very much, Laura. There are calls tonight

for an independent investigation, after allegations that Scotland Yard

and the Crown Prosecution Service tried to cover up evidence

of corruption amongst some officers. The claims were made by the defence

in a long-running trail which has With the details, here's our home

editor, Mark Easton. There is some flash

photography in his report. Did Scotland Yard officers take

thousands of pounds in corrupt payments from private detectives?

And did police and the Crown Prosecution Service then cover up

the scandal? Those are the questions left hanging, after a court case was

sensationally dropped. Here at Southwark Crown Court last Thursday,

the Crown Prosecution Service suddenly announced they were

abandoning their 18-month long case against a former solicitor. Now he'd

been accused of forging documents to make it look as though Scotland Yard

detectives were taking bribes. But defence lawyers said far from trying

to pervert the course of justice, and even though Gohil previously

pleaded guilty to money laundering, he was trying to expose corruption

within the Metropolitan Police. I was a whistle-blower. Instead of

investigating what I had uncovered and put forward, I was persecuted.

You claim to be innocent? I do, yes. In court, defence lawyers allege

there was clear and compelling evidence of police accepting bribes

in return for unlawfully providing sensitive information to private

detectives, that Scotland Yard's own investigation into the affair was

deliberately designed to find no evidence of corruption. And that

prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence, which undermined their

case, misleading the Court of Appeal in the process. These allegations

were disputed. The case goes back over four years when Mr Gohil

anonymously sent documents to public officials and journalists. Among the

bundle were what purported to be invoices, detailing payments to

confidential sources, bribes for Metropolitan Police officers it was

suggested. Having received the documents in August 2011, Scotland

Yard's department of professional standards or DPS, was asked to

conduct an investigation into the allegations and journalists began to

ask questions. I was among a small group of reporters invited here to

New Scotland Yard in 2012 for an off the record briefing from officers

leading the corruption inquiry, a tape was made of that meeting, a

recording later used in court, which Mr Gohil's team said shows the Met

was not interested in investigating the corruption. When it emerged

officers had not made even basic calls after more than six months, I

suggest today was because they feared evidence emerging that would

jeopardise a long-running and high-profile fraud case.

Irritatingly it emerges during the latter stages of that investigation,

that actually some officers in this building took bribes or at least

there's a very serious... No, no. The paper trail suggests they may

well have done. Hang on, if I took that line from the outset Eric

multimillion pound trial, fraud trial, with good evidence would have

been scuppered. Exactly my point. There's the problem. No, no. You've

got the DPS more worried about a multimillion pound trial than about

corrupt police officers. No, it's not. We consider there are very

serious questions for both the Director of Public Prosecutions and

the chief commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to answer about

all aspects of this affair. Scotland Yard has said the allegations of

corruption were investigated but no misconduct was identified. The CPS

has only confirmed that the case against Mr Gohil has been dropped.

However they're not allegations they'll be able to ignore tore long.

With all the sport, here's Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes at the BBC

It's been a fascinating day in the Premier league.

Highlights are on Match of the Day after the news.

So, if you don't want to know what happened, you know what to do.

Louis Van Gaal said Manchester United fans were right

to boo, after his side lost 1-0 at home to Southampton.

Southampton's new signing, Charlie Austin, scored

Possibly the game of the season was at Norwich, where Liverpool won

Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic beat St Johnstone.

Bottom-placed Dundee United thrashed Kilmarnock,

Johanna Konta has become the first British woman to reach

the fourth round of the Australian Open tennis for 29 years.

Andy Murray also eased into the last 16 in Melbourne

but then had to rush to hospital, after his father-in-law collapsed.

Playing professional tennis is a strange occupation. For hours you're

insulated from the outside world. Andy Murray's used to that and used

to his opponent. He played him three times last year. He used that to his

advantage. Sousa is known as conquistador, he is capable of

reclaiming ground. In the second set he took full advantage of a Murray

slump. The world number two was lured into a fight. He's more than

capable of handling himself. The significance of this blow in the

first game of the third was clear. Sousa's serve was broken. His

resistance would follow. Murray finished the job in four sets. While

he'd been playing, outside the bubble, his father-in-law, Nigel

Sears had collapse odd on another court. Murray visited him in

hospital, where he's said to be recovering. In Johanna Konta

hospital, where he's said to be the second week of grand slams.

Konta is ranked above her opponent. the second week of grand slams.

who was boss. Konta broke and won the first set 6-2. The British

number didn't face a single break point, so assertive was her

performance. The second went the same way as the first. For the first

time in 29 years, a British woman's into the last 16 in Melbourne. Could

Johanna Konta go still further? Patrick gearery BBC News.

Bath are out of Rugby Union's European Champions Cup,

after losing to defending champions Toulon.

They're into the quarter-finals, thrashing the three times champions

And England's cricketers are 337 runs behind South Africa

going into the third day of the final Test in Pretoria.

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.