It was never going to be an enjoyable experience trying to defend Google in front of the Public Accounts Committee following the recent row over their tax arrangements. But the company’s European President Matt Brittin came in for a particularly torrid time as he was quizzed by Meg Hillier today. As well as appearing to forget how much he was paid, Brittin refused to give anything away about the company’s tax arrangements in other European countries. He also got laughed at for telling the committee their Dublin office was set up for business rather than tax reasons. Brittin told MPs when asked about his salary:
‘I don’t have the figure. It’s a salary, I will provide the figure privately.’
Whilst this might not have left Google’s Matt Brittin looking great – and won’t have endeared the company to many of those angry about their £130m tax settlement – there was precious little new information to emerge from the heated exchanges. Yes, it was an opportunity to pillory the company. It was also a chance for MPs to vent some steam, supposedly on behalf of constituents. In that sense, the select committee did part of its job. But it failed to glean much in the way of detail.
The Public Accounts Committee’s Twitter feed gives a taste of their aim in publicising the humiliation of Brittin and his Google colleague Tom Hutchinson. The Twitter account was busy retweeting people who were mocking the company over the tax payment they made.
But in failing to gather any useful insight into how the tax deal was actually made, the select committee generated more heat than light and actually let Google off the hook.
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