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Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

reuters.com

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Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#51

Post by tobias3 »

kuschku wrote: post #28
tobias3 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just yesterday they put a whistleblower which published such tax evasion schemes in connection with Luxembourg into prison (LuxLeaks). They ruled that illegal state aid, because the Luxembourg tax authorities actively helped the companies setting up this scheme. The then prime minister and ex-finance minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker is now EU Commision president. So either he is incompetent and did not know…

> With the EU leadership being corrupt or incometent, it is no wonder the big companies are dancing circles around the national tax authorities. Well, it’s more like the EU can not do anything while the national authorities can veto them, and the national authorities still have the competence for that, and the right-populists in the EU are proposing even less power for the EU authorities.

Yes, indeed. And now Juncker is trying to pass CETA without national parliaments and that is currently backfiring, too.

There was this moment during the crisis where I think we could have moved forward with EU bonds, a proper banking union, increased EU budged and debt relief for Greece. But now we are stuck with a deteriorating status quo.

I blame Merkel for lack of leadership but maybe she just knows the limits of what she can push through.

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#52

Post by tirant »

cocotino wrote: post #35
josu wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to give some context, a few years ago the Spanish Police arrested the leaders of Anonymous [1]. As a Spaniard, my opinion is that this is just an intimidatory and political move. [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/spain-says-it-has-arrested-anonymou...

Political? There isn't even a government right now.

There is an interim one composed by the members of the previous government.

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#53

Post by wklauss »

Kristine1975 wrote: post #17
josephg wrote: post #16

I would expect google to keep all financial documents inside Google Drive. In doing so, I wonder what is left in the office for the Spanish authorities to find in a raid? (Google is ruthlessly paperless internally.)

>Google is ruthlessly paperless internally. Not if they have to keep information on paper to comply with the law.

This is the case. Spansish law requires companies to keep a copy of accounting books and register them periodically. That doesn't mean they have to be in paper form all the time, but they need to produce a copy if requested for tax auditing reasons. The "raid" goal is to prevent tampering of the files during the request.

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#54

Post by cmdrfred »

Bromskloss wrote: post #49
ForHackernews wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Docs sets browser cookies. If you have a surprise raid with logged-in workstations, you have access to Drive documents as well.

I would love to see a police force bursting in, and smoke immediately starting to rise from every computer. I mean, you could do it it software too, but it would look cool and send a signal to the officers. :-) Or you could keep the door locked.

Interesting idea. Keep the door closed, once opened (reed switch?) Write 0's to memory then pull power to the workstation. Just be sure to save your work before you go to the bathroom.

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#55

Post by [deleted] »

conradfr wrote: post #8

I heard someone related to the Paris office raid comment when that happened. She was saying that multinational corporations always say that their organization and tax schemes are legal but that in reality it's so complex and spread in multiple countries that nobody really knows for sure and so it's only legal by default.

[deleted]

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#56

Post by ptaipale »

tirant wrote: post #52
cocotino wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political? There isn't even a government right now.

There is an interim one composed by the members of the previous government.

And, there not being an active cabinet in office just now does not mean that there would not be politicians and politically selected civil servants doing things.

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#57

Post by lazyant »

Google translate of http://www.elmundo.es/economia/2016/06/30/5774ead6ca4741db16...

"the background of all these investigations are the lack of tax harmonization in the EU and tax strategy of the company, like others such as Apple or Twitter, for example. Sales declaring these firms in each country are unrelated to their actual billing. Subsidiaries in Spain-and other European countries act as agents of another parent company based in countries with lower tax burdens as Holland or Ireland. National subsidiaries taxed only by the minimum commissions they receive from their Dutch or Irish matrix, most of the turnover recorded paying minimum tax rates."

Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax

#59

Post by rtkwe »

jordanb wrote: post #48

Why can't Spanish (and French) authorities simply subpoena any info they need from Google? Is Google able to shield relevant data by keeping it in Ireland or the US?

If they feared that Google might destroy evidence a raid makes sense over subpoenaing. It's also bigger and flashier so if the government wanted to make a show of it and 'send a message' (either to other companies or just seem to voters like they're being tough on companies dodging taxes (legally)) that's another reason that they'd go with a raid.
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