註1 The Labour leader said it was "a shame" Mr Schmidt, scheduled to speak at the event, was not present during his own address to the audience. "I’m sorry that Eric Schmidt isn’t here this morning to hear me say this directly but when Google does great things I will praise you, but when Eric Schmidt says that its current approach to tax is just capitalism I disagree. And when Google goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes I say it is wrong," Mr Miliband said. “I can't be the only person here who feels disappointed that such a great company as Google, with such great founding principles, will be reduced to arguing that when it employs thousands of people in Britain, makes billions of pounds of revenue in Britain, it's fair that it should pay just a fraction of 1 per cent of that in tax." ・Ed Miliband: Google must pay more tax - Telegraph なおGuardianの記事には、MilibandがGoogleだけでなく、AppleやAmazon、Starbucksの名前も挙げて「いずれも無責任な社風がみられる」などと批判したとある。 Speaking at Google’s Big Tent conference in Hertfordshire, Mr Miliband claimed that major businesses with low tax bills - such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks - shared a culture of irresponsibility with the banks that caused the global financial crisis. “I have deep problems about the culture and the culture isn’t that different from what we saw at some of the banks,” he said. “There is a culture of irresponsibility among some of the biggest firms and that’s got to change. We can’t lecture people on benefits if some of the biggest companies are sending the wrong signals.” ・Ed Miliband says Google and Apple as bad as banks - Guardian
註2 “I can’t defend the international tax regime. I did not design such an irrational structure,” he said. “It would not have been designed this way by a computer scientist.” In a tense on-stage interview, Mr Schmidt reiterated Google’s view that governments had the power to set tax rates and that the business would cooperate. “The Google view here is that taxes should not be up to Google. We are following the international tax regime.” ・Eric Schmidt denies unethical tax affairs at Google - Telegraph He added: "All of us are operating in a very, very longstanding tax regime which was set up for various reasons that don't necessarily make sense to me or anyone else. But they are the way the global tax regime works." He added: "I can't defend an irrational (tax) structure - a computer engineer would not have designed this." ・Google boss Eric Schmidt hits back at Ed Miliband and vows to invest in UK even if it has to pay more tax - Independent
註3 各国の政治家や官僚が相手にしているのが、長い時間の中でできあがった税制という「レガシーなシステム」であることへの配慮がない。過去の負の遺産がほとんどなかったGoogleという企業のCEOに自分が運良く座れただけという事実や、Larry PageにCEOを引き継ぐ前のGoogleのひどい状態も忘れてしまっているかのようだ（Schmidtが負の遺産を引き継いだNovellの経営を途中で放り出してしまったことも周知の通り）。 Schmidtの女癖が悪いせいで、夫人とはもう足かけ6年も別居中……というのは一部でよく知られた事実のようで、またSchmidtが最近Google株を処分した際にも「離婚の慰謝料を捻出するためか」といった噂さえ流れていたようだが、こういう口の軽さ--「思ったことをそのまま口にしてしまう」ところなどを見聞きすると、夫人がSchmidtとヨリを戻さないのも単に女性問題のこじれのせいだけではないのかもしれない……とそんな勝手な思いも浮かんできてしまう。 Silicon Valley blogs and tabloids have run gossip items for years about Mr. Schmidt and relationships with women other than his wife, going so far as to suggest the couple might divorce. ・Nantucket Benefits From a Google Long-Distance Marriage - NYTimes.com There’s speculation that Eric Schmidt is selling $1.5 billion of his Google shares to help settle an upcoming divorce with wife Wendy. The Google chairman has been dating top Council on Foreign Relations exec Lisa Shields for a year and a half. ・Divorce prep, Google-style - NYPost
註4 Nick Clegg raised the controversy over Google's tax affairs directly with the internet giant's chairman, Eric Schmidt, at a meeting in Downing Street this week, the deputy prime minister has revealed. Clegg told Schmidt his company was among those causing massive public concern over the amount of tax it pays, and it was not in the long-term interests of his own company, as he himself was discovering. ... Clegg told a press conference in London on Wednesday: "My overall approach to tax is the obvious one. I put this directly to Eric Schmidt from Google and other business leaders at a meeting in Downing Street a couple of days ago. ・Google tackled by Nick Clegg on tax avoidance at No10 meeting - Guardian
註5 ・Disarming Senators, Apple Chief Eases Tax Tensions - NYTimes
註6 Timothy Cook came to the lion’s den on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, prepared to face down lawmakers furious over evidence that Apple, the famous company he runs, had avoided paying billions in taxes. By the time Mr. Cook walked out, the big cats on a Senate committee were practically eating out of his hand. ・Disarming Senators, Apple Chief Eases Tax Tensions - NYTimes
註7 Even the panel’s fiery chairman, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, after blasting Apple for creating “ghost companies” that diverted billions of tax dollars from American coffers and caused needy seniors to go without meals, had some kind words for Mr. Cook and his company. “We love the iPhone and the iPad,” Mr. Levin said, going on to commend Mr. Cook and two other executives for voluntarily appearing before the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations. “I know it’s not easy to come in front of a spotlight but it’s important for us.” ・Disarming Senators, Apple Chief Eases Tax Tensions - NYTimes
註8 Other senators seemed even more mollified by Mr. Cook’s low-key performance. Senator John McCain, the senior Republican on the panel, who had earlier criticized Apple “as among America’s largest tax avoiders,” took pains to modulate his message. “You managed to change the world, which is an incredible legacy for Apple,”he told Mr. Cook. “You have to be a pretty smart guy and a pretty tough guy, too, and I say that in a complimentary way,” he added. ・Disarming Senators, Apple Chief Eases Tax Tensions - NYTimes
註9 The hearings of Mr. Cook were in striking contrast to those 15 years ago of Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, who was skewered by lawmakers and his rivals over using monopoly power to run over his business rivals. Mr. Gates was disdainful of Washington and politicians when he arrived from Seattle for his first Capitol Hill appearance in 1998. That did not serve him well. ・Torches and Pitchforks for I.R.S. but Cheers for Apple - NYTimes
註10 This week, Mr. Cook tapped into the public’s good will to defuse the congressional anger. ・Torches and Pitchforks for I.R.S. but Cheers for Apple - NYTimes
註11 Meanwhile, the U.S. is undergoing a debate about the earnings that U.S. companies are keeping overseas. The profit at foreign subsidiaries are out of the reach of the IRS, and largely unusable to their U.S. operations. The sums amount to an estimated $1.9 trillion, according to an analysis by Audit Analytics, which reviewed filings from more than 1,000 companies in the Russell 3000 Index that report the figure. ・Apple Avoided Taxes on Overseas Billions, Senate Panel Finds - WSJ
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