Italy also recently went after Apple, alleging that company failed to pay taxed for six years.
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“My understanding is that the French and Italians have said how much tax they would like Google to pay”.
“I have long argued that in the modern world corporation tax has had its day as a major source of tax revenue”.
The accord disclosed Friday comes amid mounting criticism that Google and other major USA companies have been scrimping on their tax bills with a variety of accounting maneuvers that have rankled governments around the world.
Italy is the latest country in the European Union to accuse Google of tax evasion.
Ms Vestager told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday she was able to “use state aid tools to look for more individual companies and more selective advantages being given out in the form of tax rulings”.
Asked if he stood by his initial upbeat assessment of the deal, Mr Osborne told Sky News: “My only interest, as the country’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, is to get the best deal for Britain – to bring the jobs here, the businesses here and to make sure that taxes are paid here”.
However, “if we find there is something to be concerned about, if someone writes to us and says this is maybe not as it should be, then we will take a look”, she said.
In Italy, the financial police confirmed news reports Thursday that Google was under investigation for allegedly avoiding up to around 300 million euros ($326 million) in taxes. The Labour Party is said to be planning on submitting a similar request.
The company earned revenues estimated at 24 billion pounds in the United Kingdom, a figure that should net in taxes of about 2 billion pounds. Most of the multinationals under tax investigations are mostly in the tech sector.
Even one of the firm’s biggest British shareholders, James Anderson, has said it should pay “much more” in tax.
Cable, the former secretary of state for business, said that Google CEO Eric Schmidt enjoyed close links with Prime Minister David Cameron during the coalition government.
Appearing on BBC1’s Question Time, he said: “We have started to receive tax from Google, which is something that hasn’t happened for the 10 years they have so far been established here, so in that position the Chancellor was right to say that it was a move in the right direction”.
“HMRC have been very clear that they have collected all the tax that’s due”.
– Pierre Moscovici, the European Union’s tax chief, as he announced Thursday a crackdown on tax avoidance by multinational companies that shift their profits to low-tax countries in Europe.
It has caught the attention of the European Commission, which said the agreement could be a breach of EU competition rules and will be investigated if a complaint is made.
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“Diverted profits tax is only there to capture tax from those organisations that don’t pay corporation tax on their profits in the UK”.
