'Google DO do evil': Furious ministers and MPs rage at web firm's 'devious' and unethical ways of avoiding tax in Britain Google vice president Matt Britten challenged over complex tax set up He insisted all sales are made in Ireland so tax is paid there not in UK Vince Cable slams legal but unethical behaviour to avoid tax Last year firm paid only £7.3million in corporation tax on more than £3billion UK sales HMRC says without a change in the law 'we cannot collect the tax' Labour leader Ed Miliband accuses firm of 'going to extraordinary lengths' to dodge tax Internet giant Google was today accusing of doing "evil" as MPs lost their temper with the firms" "devious" attempts to avoid paying tax in Britain. During more than an hour of intense question, Google boss Matt Britten was repeatedly warned hewas at risk of misleading Parliament, after denying that sales staff based in Britain were actually involved in "selling," insisting deals were closed through its offices in Ireland. Business Secretary Vince Cable backed 'public outrage' at multi-national firms who use legal but 'unethical' means to avoid paying tax. Google vice president Matt Brittin floundered during the grilling by MPs, admitting that committee chairman Margaret Hodge knew more about his firm than he did Mr Britten, Google vice president, was recalled to give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee after an investigation suggested London-based staff were selling advertising to UK firms, countering his claims that all sales were made in Dublin. The arrangement means that corporation tax on profits is paid in Ireland and not the UK. Several times he admitted he could not answer questions from the Commons spending watchdog, admitting MPs knew more about his firm than he did. During today's hearing, Mr Britten was accused of being "devious" by making the distinction between staff in the UK who promoted Google's services and those in Ireland who processed the financial transaction. During one farcical exchange, John Dixon from accountants Ernst and Young, refused to talk about Google's tax arrangements to protect client 'confidentiality' despite sitting next to his client Ms Hodge, the committee chairman, opened the hearing with a warning to Mr Brittin that it was a "very serious offence" to mislead a parliamentary select committee. I think that you do do evil in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax PAC chairman Margaret Hodge She accused Mr Brittin of "devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical behaviour in deliberately manipulating the reality of your business in order to avoid paying your fair share of tax to the common good." In a damning attack on the global company, she added: "You are a company that says you do no evil and I think that you do do evil in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax." Speaking after the hearing she said it was 'quite clear' that Google is conducting sales in Britain. In an unusual attack on individual firms by a Cabinet, Mr Cable said: 'There is public outrage, it is absolutely justified. 'As far as we can establish, Google, Amazon and some of these other companies are not actually acting illegally, they're not engaged in illegal tax evasion. 'But what they are doing is using every opportunity they get to avoid paying tax, so there is an issue about ethical behaviour and there is an issue about enforcement,' he told Channel 5 News. Furious: Committee chairman Margaret Hodge warned Mr Britten that misleading Parliament was a 'very serious offence' as she accused him of being 'devious' During more than an hour of intense questions, exasperated MPs called on Mr Britten to 'call a spade a spade' and give straight answers to their questions During today's hearing a floundering Mr Britten insisted: "We comply fully with the laws that are set down by politicians. Tax is not a matter of choice, tax is a matter of following the law. Labour leader Ed Miliband seized on the allegations to condemn the internet giant. 'People will be shocked by the evidence that Google is going to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying their fair share of tax,' he said. It comes on top of other firms apparently engaging in similar practices. It is evidence of a culture of corporate irresponsibility among certain firms which is totally unacceptable. As so often under this Government, I think it is evidence of one rule for those at the top and another rule for everyone else. David Cameron says we have to just wait for international action. He is wrong. Labour leader Ed Milliband said people would be 'shocked' by Google's tax arrangements while Business Secretary Vince Cable said 'public outrage' was justified Downing Street refused to criticise Google directly, but David Cameron's official spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister's view is that companies should be the tax that they owe.' He added that Mr Cameron was pushing for a global deal on tax avoidance, since measures introduced by individual countries could be avoided by large, trans-national firms. The select committee said it had received evidence from whistleblowers that suggested staff in London were making sales. "It was quite clear from all that documentation that the entire trading process and sales process took place in the UK," Mrs Hodge said Mr Brittin said the evidence related to the period before he joined the company six and half years ago and that suggestions that Google was trying to "disguise" the way it operated were "just not true." Tax avoidance campaign group UK Uncut said: 'It's an absolute disgrace that Amazon is paying such tiny amounts in tax. I stand by what I said. I described very clearly how we operate," he said. The committee had seen an invoice sent to clients by Google from a London address, as well as a presentation describing steps of the selling process involving UK-based staff. It also been contacted by a senior salesman who she said was paid a "modest" salary, but three or four times that in commission for sales he made and for "closing deals," Mrs Hodge said. She challenged the idea that sales were not made in the UK 'because it doesn't make sense to your own staff, it doesn't make sense to the committee, it doesn't make sense to any of your clients'. She added: "The only people it seems to make sense to are Google - you are the last man standing on this." But Mr Brittin said that, although sales staff in the UK were promoting Google and encouraging people to spend money, the transaction would take place with Ireland. What people are not doing, any customer that spends with us, they have to buy from Ireland because that's where the intellectual property sits. He added: "I stand by everything I said last November. I think the body of what I said, if you look at every quote I said, I described exactly what we do. Everything I have told you about how we operate today, in November, is how we currently operate. Later Mrs Hodge also sharply criticised HM Revenue and Customs chief executive Lin Homer over the way her staff interpreted the law in relation to companies like Google. 'It is an issue of judgment,' she told HMRC. I think your judgment belies common sense. We don't trust your judgment. I think your staff are being bamboozled. Ms Homer, who gave evidence to the committee after Mr Brittin, insisted that HMRC was better qualified than MPs to determine what taxes were due. That is a matter for the application of expert tax knowledge. I'm afraid that that is something I think we do rather better than a select committee,' she said. She added: 'Unless and until you change the law, we cannot collect the tax people would like us to collect.' During one farcical exchange, John Dixon (Left) from accountants Ernst and Young, refused to talk about Google's tax arrangements to protect client 'confidentiality' despite sitting next to his client After the hearing Mrs Hodge said it was 'quite clear from the evidence we heard... that sales activity is taking place here'. She told BBC Radio 4: 'My feel is that Google are certainly masquerading as a marketing business here in the UK, where in fact they are a sales business.' She accused HMRC of dealing with Google 'in a pussycat way'. But a Google spokesman said: 'As we have always said, we fully comply with all of the tax rules in the UK. We stand behind Matt Brittin's testimony over the course of two sessions in front of Parliament, and we disagree with the committee's view of our tax structure.' Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Yet again the Public Accounts Committee has offered stinging criticism of individual companies but no progress on the root cause of the problem, our broken tax system. Politicians are responsible for our hideously complex tax code and it's up to them to simplify it to ensure that everyone pays their fair share, no more and no less. Until the system is simplified, HMRC will always face an uphill struggle against a 17,000-page tax code, which is full of loopholes being legally exploited by those with clever accountants and tax lawyers. We need serious and comprehensive tax reform, not empty moralising.