Taxing Google and Other U.S. Giants Is Dividing Europe


BRUSSELS — For some European nations, big American corporations like Google are seen primarily as employers and technological innovators whose presence can help with their global competitiveness.

But for others, the multinational giants are seen as having used complex accounting to sidestep corporate taxes. That, some argue, makes them prime targets at a time when governments are grasping for revenue to fill budget deficits and trying to address populist concerns about inequality.

The divide, long present in Europe, is playing out with new intensity.

The issue bobbed to the surface on Thursday when Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner who has become the bloc’s chief tax inquisitor, told the BBC that she might look into the $185 million tax settlement recently reached between Google and the Conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron. Critics say Mr. Cameron has let Google off too easy.

European Union officials in Brussels are intent on imposing a blocwide standard for taxation and clawing back what they consider to be improper tax breaks granted by national governments to multinational companies.

While some countries like France and Germany are happy to see back taxes collected from big corporations as a result of the effort, others are essentially saying they would rather the companies keep all or some of their tax breaks as long as they bring prosperity.

The difference in approach may not rank with more existential problems for the European Union, like how to control the migrant influx without sacrificing open borders across much of the Continent. But it shows how tax policy cuts to the core of economic competitiveness for most countries in Europe, where sustained growth and balanced budgets have been hard to achieve lately.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/business/international/taxing-google-and-other-us-giants-is-dividing-europe.html?ref=europe