Google has joined the list of companies facing criticism over tax avoidance after public accounts showed it paid only £600,000 in UK corporation tax despite local revenues of more than £1.25bn.

A review of Google's British operations suggests the web search engine could have faced taxes of more than £100m in this country, but that it avoided this by channelling revenues through Ireland.

Google's activities were condemned as unacceptable by politicians amid promises from the prime minister, Gordon Brown, to crack down on tax evasion in this week's budget.

More than 90% of Google's UK revenues are channelled through Ireland, where corporation tax is levied at 12.5% compared with 28% in Britain, according to Richard Murphy, an accountant who investigated Google's British, Irish and American accounts for The Sunday Times.

Murphy suggested that Google had avoided a further €135m (now £119m) in tax from Ireland during 2007 while the Irish subsidiary was owned by one of two companies Google has set up in the tax haven of Bermuda.

The records suggest several sets of Google's UK accounts were filed late, with one set of accounts outstanding by more than five months.

"Google seems to be one of a number of companies that are based here, have UK employees and use local services and infrastructure but try to pay their taxes elsewhere when they think they can get away with paying less tax. The government needs to be much firmer in stopping it," said Vince Cable, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

"The reality is, the more tax that companies like Google avoid, the more the tax burden falls on the rest of the public. It is clear that while Labour and the Tories have been embracing Google as the paragon of a 21st-century company, it has been running away from the taxman," he added.

The US-based internet company said it could not respond to the attacks by British politicians "at this time" nor comment on individual financial figures, but it insisted it had always acted appropriately.

"Google complies fully with the tax requirements in all the countries in which we operate. In the UK and elsewhere we make a very substantial contribution to local and national taxation. In addition, we provide employment for hundreds of people in the UK and many more across Europe," said a company spokesman.

Google has previously been praised as a model of innovation by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. In a speech at a Google conference last year, Brown said: "Can I begin by congratulating Google, 10 years ago a research organisation, now a $180bn company, an expert in social innovation ... making great strides in putting services to the people of this country."

Brown has recently led a crusade against tax havens, saying they should be more transparent in future. Tax evaders who deprive the exchequer of more than £25,000 are to be named and shamed in a crackdown to be unveiled by Alistair Darling in the budget on Wednesday.