Google says it would pay more tax in UK

The technology giant has come under heavy fire for using tax laws to avoid paying a more significant level of corporate tax in the past.

However, Mr Schmidt told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday that Google "loves" Britain and would pay more tax if it were legally required to do so. He said the company's hands were tied by Britain's low tax demands.

"It is true we could pay more tax but we would have to do so voluntarily. It's called paying the legally minimum amount of tax required," he said.

"The fact of the matter is there are lots of benefits to [being in Britain]. It's very good for us, but to go back to shareholders and say 'We looked at 200 countries but felt sorry for those British people so we want to [pay them more]' . . . there is probably some law against doing that."

Mr Schmidt's comments come after months of controversy surrounding the UK's corporate tax system, which has seen campaign group UK Uncut target high street chains including Vodafone, Boots and Barclays. Violence has often been used, bringing condemnation from business leaders.

Activists from UK Uncut claim that a number of major companies have avoided paying corporation tax on their offshore assets.

Although Google has not been targeted by UK Uncut, the company's fiscal policy has come under fire for diverting some £2bn of its UK revenues through Ireland, where corporate tax rates are lower.

Mr Schmidt said that the online search giant, which employs more than 1,000 people in the UK, was committed to having a presence in the UK regardless of the rate of tax.

"We love Britain. If Britain changes its tax laws, we will pay taxes in accordance with those laws. I can't be clearer than that," he said. His comments will reignite the debate about paying tax in the UK, with Mr Schmidt putting the issue firmly at the door of the Government. The Treasury did not comment last night.

Mr Schmidt also spoke about Google's agreement to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn (£7.6bn) for the first time since the deal was announced, claiming the group is interested in handsets as well as its library of 17,000 patents and 7,500 pending patents. But he added that Google did not want to find itself "disadvantaged" in the growing "patent wars" brewing in mobile computing.

Google says it would pay more tax in UK - You can download Google says it would pay more tax in UK picture for free. Click the image to download the Google says it would pay more tax in UK.

Are you searching Picture for high quality Women Galleries ...

Rio Hamza' discovered 4km beneath the Amazon

Covering more than 7 million square kilometres in South America, the Amazon basin is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out we have only known half the story until now.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin – around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider.

Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km.

The underground river starts in the Acre region under the Andes and flows through the Solimões, Amazonas and Marajó basins before opening out directly into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon flows much faster than the Hamza, however, draining a greater volume of water. Around 133,000m³ of water flow through the Amazon per second at speeds of up to 5 metres per second. The underground river's flow rate has been estimated at around 3,900m³ per second and it barely inches along at less than a millimetre per hour.

The Hamza was located using data collected inside a series of 241 abandoned deep wells that were drilled in the Amazon region by the petrochemical company Petrobras in the 1970s and 1980s. Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel and Valiya Hamza of the Department of Geophysics atBrazil's National Observatory led the work and presented their results last week at the International Congress of the Society Brasiliera Geophysical in Rio de Janeiro.

The researchers used a mathematical model to predict the presence of the underground river, based on the measured changes in temperature down the wells. In the presentation, Piementel said that the flow of groundwater was almost vertical through the rocks to depths of around 2,000m. After this, the water flow changes direction and becomes almost horizontal.

According to the researchers, the presence of the Rio Hamza river might account for the relatively low salinity of the waters around the mouth of the Amazon.

Professor Hamza said Piementel's measurements represented preliminary work on the discovery of the new river, but Hamza said he expected to confirm the existence of the flow with additional measurements within the next few years.

Rio Hamza' discovered 4km beneath the Amazon - You can download Rio Hamza' discovered 4km beneath the Amazon picture for free. Click the image to download the Rio Hamza' discovered 4km beneath the Amazon.

Are you searching Picture for high quality Women Galleries ...