Google chief Eric Schmidt has shrugged off criticism of the firm’s tax evasion policies, which have seen it shirk a £1.2bn liability in the UK alone, by saying that he is ‘very proud’ of the arrangement.
Insisting that the policy was legal and correct Schmidt claimed that the policy was just ‘capitalism’ and rejected any calls to change tack.
Speaking to Bloomberg Schmidt said: “We are proudly capitalistic. I’m not confused about this. We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways. I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate.”
Needless to the say the remarks haven’t gone down well in government with business secretary Vince Cable retorting in the Telegraph: “It may well be [capitalism] but it’s certainly not the job of governments to accommodate it.”
Moves are afoot to organise an international response to clamp down on tax avoidance at the upcoming G8 conference, although the complexity of negotiating with multiple jurisdictions is likely to forestall any change in the law in the short to medium term.