I watched a very smooth man on TV yesterday explaining that Google pays corporation tax at 20% (like other companies in the UK), and that there had been no "sweetheart deals" with HMRC in the arrangement to pay £130m in 10 years of back taxes. At 20%, that suggests that the Big G made £2.6bn profit on sales, services (etc) in the UK during that time. You will have your own view on whether that sounds plausible or not, although, only Google and their accountants will actually know the ins and outs of it.
Mind you, £130m sounds a lot when compared to Facebook, which paid £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014. Then there was the offer from by Starbucks to donate £20m to the Treasury for 2013 and 2014, having paid zilch in the previous three years.
But, here's the thing: how many of you reading this, who are outraged by it all, still use Google and Facebook and patronise Starbucks or any other company using Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich, or Luxembourg Lark arrangements?
If you really cared, you'd give them all up. I stopped using the Google search engine about 18 months ago to see whether the world kept turning at the same speed.
It did.
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NB, the title of this post is a tribute to Neil Postman. Such a pity he's not around to write today. Discussing his 1971 book: Teaching as a subversive activity, was a formative experience in my professional development.
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