Google suspected of tax evasion in Russia

US-based Internet giant Google is suspected of tax evasion in Russia, a senator in Russia’s upper house of parliament said.

Ruslan Gattarov, head of the Information Society Committee, sent a letter on Thursday to the Federal Tax Service with a request to check the financial operations of the Google AdSense advertising service.

Google spokeswoman Svetlana Anurova told RIA Novosti on Thursday that the company “pays taxes in Russia, complies with the tax laws and is happy to provide the government with all tax information that it requires.”

In the senator’s letter, obtained by RIA Novosti, Gattarov claimed that the Google AdSense context advertising service, which has been operational since 2003, “enables website owners to earn income from the placement of ads on their websites.”

According to Gattarov, website visitors navigate by links, which enables site owners to get payments from Google. The Internet giant has a representative office in Russia, but all financial transactions are performed between Google Inc. or Google Ireland and a specific person in Russia, the senator said in his letter.

In a user agreement governed by English law, Google relieves itself of the obligation to pay taxes in Russia and assigns that function to the recipients of payments in Russia, which contradicts Russian law, the senator claimed.

According to Gattarov, Google must withhold taxes from payment recipients and pay them to the Russian government.


/RIA Novosti/