(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Politicians have slammed a deal between Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and the UK government over how much the internet giant has to pay in tax arrears. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the £130mln that Google agreed to pay for the last decade in a settlement with Chancellor George Osborne seemed small compared to the size of its business in the UK. It urged tax authority HMRC to reopen the deal if new evidence became available following probes by other European authorities. The chairman of the committee Meg Hillier MP criticised Google for a lack of clarity and details of the settlement and highlighted "palpable" public irritation over the issue. "Whether you call it secrecy or confidentiality this lack of transparency does nothing to build confidence that big corporations are paying their fair share of tax" the BBC quoted her as saying. Google insisted it paid a "fair" amount of tax and Osborne described the deal as a victory. HMRC said it collected all the tax due from multi-nationals and was maximising the amount paid by rigorously enforcing the rules. "We are committed to being as open and transparent as we can within the constraints of our statutory duty of taxpayer confidentiality" the BBC quoted an HMRC spokesman as saying.
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