Google Inc., the global Internet service provider and search
engine, denied evading millions of tax payments in China, ycwb.com,
a website affiliated with the Yangcheng Evening News,
reported on October 29.
On October 26, various reports revealed that the company
utilizes a massive tax loophole when conducting e-business in China
and that this loophole might total millions of yuan. Sources
reported that the Beijing Local Tax Bureau is currently
investigating the case. Yet Google's Chinese spokesman in Beijing
said that the company has received no inspections from local tax
bureaus and the reports must have some ulterior motives.
Google has evaded tax liabilities, including business tax,
personal income tax and tax on Options from 2002 to 2006, according
to the reports of anonymous industrial insiders made several days
ago. To date ycwb.com has failed to reveal the specific sources of
those reports.
Statistics from iResearch, an online market research company,
indicated that Google earned a gross profit of 285 million yuan
(US$38.1 million) in China last year.?
In 2003 Google Inc. launched its advertising keywords business
in China and has provided various Internet services ever since. The
spokesman said that the company would pay close attention to the
reports. The necessity of filing a lawsuit has not been
excluded.
(China.org.cn by Wu Jin November 1, 2007)
