U.K. Lawmakers Accuse Starbucks, Amazon, Google of Tax Avoidance
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Executives from Starbucks Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. came under attack from British lawmakers who accused the U.S. companies of using complex accounting methods to reduce their tax liabilities in the U.K.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee questioned statements of how much profit the companies were making in Britain. Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead was told his assertion that the coffee chain continually made losses in Britain “just doesn’t ring true,” while Amazon’s director of public policy, Andrew Cecil, was “not credible” when he declined to give details of sales generated in the U.K.