Don't be evil - Google pays £6m UK tax on £395m turnover

Last time I checked corporation tax was payable on profits, not turnover.<p><a href="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/getting-started/intro.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/getting-started/intro.htm</a>

I'm a British taxpayer, but let's put this into perspective: <i>turnover of £395 million</i> ... <i>The search giant reported overall losses of £24.1 million in the UK</i><p>If my business made a loss, it wouldn't pay much tax either (beyond the VAT I have to collect, employer NICs, not to mention the income tax my employees pay, etc.)<p>If there's anything fishy here, it's why Google is making a loss on such healthy revenues in the UK when it's so profitable in the US.. but the tax itself is not surprising given the lack of profit.

It would help if we knew what UK Google's real profit was (as opposed to the accounting profit (loss) it (doesn't) pay tax on).<p>e.g. I expect UK Google pays a lot to license various Google trademarks from an offshore Google subsidiary. How much?

In my country companies pay no income tax if there is no profit (they do pay other taxes for each employee). I think this is pretty common in Europe, as taxes are usually taken from profit no revenue.