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British MP accuses Google of dodging taxes
LONDON: A key British lawmaker has accused search giant Google of dodging taxes in the UK.
Britain’s parliamentary Public Accounts Committee issued a scathing report on Thursday, accusing Google of taking on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose other than to avoid paying its fair share.
The report came after testimony by Google Vice President Matt Brittin, who’d tried to persuade members of the committee that his internet company was transparent and fair.
Committee chair Margaret Hodge wrote that Google had “brazenly argued” that its tax arrangements in the UK were defensible and lawful, but she said the argument was “deeply unconvincing”.
Hodge said the government needs to act to shut down loopholes.
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“The company’s highly contrived tax arrangement has no purpose other than to enable the company to avoid UK corporation tax,” she said.
Google has paid less than 0.1 per cent of its billions in UK revenue back to the government in tax.
In the first quarter of this year, it made $US1.3 billion ($A1.38 billion) in revenue from the UK, according to a Google release. – AP
N Korea slams South for scrapped talks
SEOUL: North Korea has blamed South Korean arrogance and deceit for the collapse of planned talks between the two rivals.
And it has warned that prospects for any future dialogue have been severely damaged.
The two Koreas had initially agreed to hold their first high-level talks in six years in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday this week, but they were called off at the last minute following a dispute over protocol.
The initiative had been seen as a step forward after months of soaring military tensions, but its collapse has instead resulted in a sizeable backwards stride.
Even the one positive development – the restoration of an inter-government hotline – seemed in doubt, with the North refusing to answer calls from the South since Wednesday morning.
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“The South side had no intent to hold dialogue from the beginning,” said a spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the state body that handles inter-Korean issues.
“It only sought to create an obstacle to the talks, delay and then torpedo them,” he said in a statement on Thursday carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, accusing the South of “arrogant obstructions and deliberate disturbance”.
“This impolite and immoral provocative behaviour made us think once again whether it will be possible to properly discuss matters or improve relations even if official talks are opened in the future.”
The agreement to meet had looked vulnerable from the outset, requiring 17 hours of negotiation on Sunday that ended with no real consensus on the agenda.
The nail in the coffin was a dispute over who would represent each side. – AFP
Fires destroy 92 homes in southwestern US
COLORADO SPRINGS: A major fire has destroyed 92 homes and forced more than 7000 residents in the US state of Colorado to flee.
The fire near Colorado Springs is being fuelled by hot temperatures, gusty winds and thick, bone-dry forests, the sheriff’s office said on Wednesday.
A separate fire to the south led to the evacuation of about 250 residents and nearly 1000 inmates at medium-security prison, while to the north another fire burned in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Fires also are burning in New Mexico, Oregon and California, where a fire fighter was killed fighting one of dozens of lightning-sparked fires.
Some Colorado Springs residents were warned to be ready to evacuate, mostly because of a fear of flying embers spreading the fire into the state’s second-largest city.
The smell of smoke and bits of ash floated in Denver, about 96km to the north, where the haze blocked the sun.
No injuries or deaths have been reported, but authorities are trying to confirm the whereabouts of one person reported missing on Wednesday. – AP
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