Starbucks, Amazon and Google admit using favourable tax jurisdictions - Telegraph.co.uk

"It makes people incredibly angry in the current fiscal climate," she added, in reference to the austerity measures which large budget deficits have forced on the UK, and other countries.

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.

A Reuters report last month showed that Starbucks had paid no corporation, or income, tax in the UK in the past three years.

The world's biggest coffee chain paid only £8.6m in total UK tax over 13 years, during which it recorded sales of £3.1bn.

Campaign group UK Uncut, which is opposed to Government austerity measures, and which has organised protests against British telecoms operator Vodafone and pharmacist Boots over their tax practices, said in a statement on Monday that they planned to target Starbucks.

Starbucks said it followed the tax rules in every country where it operates and sought to pay its fair share of taxes.

"We are committed to being transparent on this issue and look forward to appearing before this committee," a spokeswoman said.

Starbucks' chief financial officer Troy Alstead gave evidence to the committee, as did Matt Brittin, chief executive of Google UK, and Andrew Cecil, Brussels-based director of public policy for Amazon.

Google's filings show it had $4bn of sales in the UK last year, but despite having a group-wide profit margin of 33pc, its main UK unit had a tax charge of just £3.4m in 2011.

The company avoids UK tax by channelling non-US sales via an Irish unit, an arrangement that allowed it to pay taxes at a rate of 3.2pc on non-US profits. Amazon's main UK unit paid less than £1m in income tax last year. The company had UK sales worth $5.3bn to £7.2bn, filings show.

Amazon avoids UK taxes by reporting European sales through a Luxembourg-based unit. This structure allowed it to pay a tax rate of 11pc on foreign profits last year - less than half the average corporate income tax rate in its major markets.

Google declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

Hodge and former financial services minister Paul Myners told The Sunday Telegraph that the Government should consider a new revenue-based tax to ensure profits from UK sales didn't go offshore.