Google said on Friday it agreed to pay the UK tax authority £130 million ($185.5 million) in back taxes, prompting criticism from campaigners and academics who said the UK tax authority had agreed a “sweetheart deal”. Google, now part of Alphabet Inc, has been under pressure in recent years over its practice of channeling most profits from European clients through Ireland to Bermuda where it pays no tax on them. In 2013, the company faced a UK parliamentary inquiry after a Reuters investigation showed the company employed hundreds of sales people in Britain despite saying it did not conduct sales in the country, a key plank in its tax arrangements.
