Multinationals and taxes: art of transfer pricing

Vince Cable calls for tax crackdown | Politics | The Guardian: "Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Cable cast doubt on the claim made by the coffee chain Starbucks that it had only made an annual profit once in15 years of operating in the UK. "I don't know whether they are [making a profit] or not," Cable said. "But you would need some pretty intensive investigation by [HM Revenue & Customs] to establish what exactly is going on, whether their transfer prices and their royalties are being fiddled or not."

Starbucks gave evidence to the Commons public accounts committee last Monday alongside Amazon and Google in a session in which MPs expressed anger at the way all three multinationals had managed to minimise their tax payments within the UK. Cable said this was "completely unacceptable" at a time when the country was in the grip of austerity.

"We want to make this an attractive place [to multinational companies] but while they're here, if they make profits, then they should pay tax on their profits," he said. "There's nothing more galling to small and medium-sized companies that they're paying their profit tax to the British government, and we find these people dodging it.""

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