Google misleading tax authorities, says Hodge

Margaret Hodge MP has told BBC Radio 4's World At One that "there is enough evidence by whistleblowers to suggest that sales activity is taking place at Google."

She added: "My feel is that Google are certainly masquerading as a marketing business here in the UK, where in fact they are a sales business.

"HMRC, if I may say so, are really dealing with them in a pussycat way, rather than what I would like to see - that they are the bulldogs working on behalf of you and I and everybody else as taxpayers.

"In my view they (Google) are undertaking sales activity here in the UK.

"They say they are not. I believe that they are, and we had evidence of payslips from UK-based staff where three-quarters of the money earned by individuals comes from commission. Commission only comes from sales."

Ms Hodge added: "We had evidence from all the people who do business with Google, lots of the ad agencies.

"They all think they are cutting deals with Google here in the UK. If everybody thinks that but Google, and perhaps the HMRC, shouldn't common sense prevail?"