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)
