Low corporation tax bills may not be all they seem

Google pays £50m corporation tax on £1.8bn of revenues proclaimed the headline in inews in April. It seems rare for a week to pass without a multinational giant featuring in a story of a similar nature. Amazon Netflix Facebook and Starbucks have all experienced excoriation in recent months based on the size of their UK corporation tax payments.

The implication of these stories is that these organisations are not paying their way employing nefarious means to reduce their bills while other ‘ordinary’ taxpayers pick up the tab. But is this fair or accurate? Are they really artificially achieving miniscule effective tax rates? Are they doing only what any other taxpayer would do? Is it right to view their tax contribution simply through the lens of corporation tax? It is generally difficult to draw any conclusions from the articles behind the headlines one way or...