U.K. lawmakers criticized executives of Star-bucks, Google and Amazon on Monday for not paying more tax in Britain, and Amazon said it had received a $252-million demand for back taxes from France.
Britain's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is charged with monitoring government financial affairs, invited the companies to give evidence amid mounting public and political concern about tax avoidance by big international companies.
Britain and Germany last week announced plans to push the Group of 20 economic powers to make multinational companies pay their "fair share" of taxes following reports of large firms exploiting loopholes to avoid taxes.
Amazon received a $252-million back-tax claim from the French tax authority in September, related to its practice of channeling European sales through Luxembourg.
The company said it was fighting the claim, referred to by an Amazon official at the hearing.
Members of Parliament on the committee quizzed Starbucks chief financial officer Troy Alstead about how the group's U.K .unit managed to report 13 years of losses.
"You're either running the business badly, or there's some fiddle going on," MP Austin Mitchell said.
A Reuters report last month showed that Starbucks had paid no corporation, or income, tax in the U.K. in the past three years and had paid only $13.7 million US since 1998.
Over this period it sold $4.9 billion worth of coffee, prompting criticism from politicians and media commentators.
