Google's Schmidt to meet Britain's Cameron as tax row rages

Published May 18, 2013
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speaks at a Motorola phone launch event in New York, in this September 5, 2012 photo. — Reuters (File Photo)
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speaks at a Motorola phone launch event in New York, in this September 5, 2012 photo. — Reuters (File Photo)

LONDON, Fri May 17, 2013 - Google Inc's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is due to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday as a participant of an advisory group just days after UK lawmakers lambasted the Internet company's tax affairs.

The meeting is a routine one and has been long-planned, will include other high-profile business people, and tax evasion is not on the agenda, a government source told Reuters.

Google faced angry questions on Thursday from British lawmakers investigating its tax affairs over whether it had misled parliament in testimony last year, adding fuel to a debate on taxation that has risen to the top of Britain's political agenda.

Google's Northern Europe boss, Matt Brittin, was called back to testify to parliament's Public Accounts Committee after a Reuters investigation showed the company employed staff in sales roles in London, even though he had told the committee in November its British staff were not "selling" to UK clients.

Prominent parliamentarians have questioned Schmidt's continued status as a member of Cameron's Business Advisory Group given what some of them have classed as his company's "amoral" attitude towards paying tax.

The group meets quarterly to give Cameron high level advice on critical business and economic matters facing Britain.

Opinion

Editorial

By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...
Not without reform
Updated 22 Apr, 2024

Not without reform

The problem with us is that our ruling elite is still trying to find a way around the tough reforms that will hit their privileges.
Raisi’s visit
22 Apr, 2024

Raisi’s visit

IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi, who begins his three-day trip to Pakistan today, will be visiting the country ...
Janus-faced
22 Apr, 2024

Janus-faced

THE US has done it again. While officially insisting it is committed to a peaceful resolution to the...