In an open letter to fellow leaders of the G8, written as the UK takes over the presidency, David Cameron asked his fellow leaders to coordinate global efforts to stop tax avoidance by multinational businesses. Cameron said co-ordinated action is needed to make major corporations and wealthy individuals pay their fair share of tax.
He points out that it is jolly unfair that taxpayers work hard and pay their fair share of taxes only to see rich multi-nationals get away with murder. Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, has said that he is “very proud” of the way that the company arranges to pay as little tax as legally possible, saying it “is called capitalism”. It seems that the “do no evil” thing has long since disappeared.
Tax avoidance by Google, Starbucks and Amazon are big news in the UK as there is a lot of support to have the the buggers jailed for “immorally” minimising its tax bills. It is a little ironic as 300 years ago they would have transported to the colonies for theft. Now just the money is being transported and people are miffed.