Google received unfavorable press today as Spanish tax authorities raided their Madrid offices following which it released a statement saying that they are in compliance with Spanish finance laws and are cooperating with the authorities.
Google has been under consistent pressure across Europe from the political class and the public who contend that technology companies generate profits in their countries but funnel them elsewhere to minimize tax bills, according to a report by Reuters.
Today's incident, comes barely one month after French investigators accused Google of aggravated financial fraud and organized money laundering and raided its Google's Paris headquarters.
French prosecutors were investigating the suspicion that suggests that Google which is part of Alphabet Inc exploits a loophole in international tax law that allows them to conclude all sales contracts and report all sales through their staff in Dublin. The raid was aimed to establish if Google Ireland has a permanent base and if their firm was meeting its tax obligations.France later revealed that it is seeking €1.6bn (£1.2bn) in back taxes from Google.
When Google announced its decision this January to pay to pay £130m in back taxes to the UK Treasury, it received backlash from opposition MPs who then accused Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of being complicit in allowing Google to continue to rout its UK sales through its business in Ireland.
Google's defense of these allegations is that its offices in Paris, London and other European capitals only provides back-office services such as marketing and are hence not full fledged businesses according to a report by the Guardian.
Meanwhile Spanish authorities did not immediately respond to request for comments on the raid.
More details are awaited.
