Can Google say it pays close to the rate of UK corporation tax?

Only by going back several years can the technology company say that the rate of tax it pays is anything like the rate of UK corporation tax

It was with a straight face that Google's global head of tax, Tom Hutchinson told MPs on parliament's public accounts committee that the search group's worldwide tax rate over the past five years was about 19%.

"To me, that appears to be a fair amount of tax to pay," he said, deadpan. It was a number he and Google's European boss Matt Brittin kept coming back to in their evidence, on each occasion noting that it was "close to the UK [corporation tax] rate," currently 20%.