My most recent article for the Cornish Guardian focused on
the tax avoidance presently being practiced by large companies. It was as
follows:
There is an understandable and widespread anger because a
range of large global companies are paying little or no corporation tax on profits
made in the United Kingdom .
According to an investigation by the news agency Reuters, US
coffee giant Starbucks generated sales of £398 million in the UK
last year but paid no corporation tax on their profits at all.
The study found that the company had reported losses in each
of the last five years and therefore could justify paying no corporation tax.
But their executives have also described their UK
business as both "successful" and “profitable.”
The reality is that they have ensured they made “no
profits" through payments to offshore companies also owned by Starbucks.
Reuters meanwhile found that Google managed sales of $4
billion in the UK
but, despite having a profit margin of 33%, paid tax of just £3.4 million.
Google avoids UK
tax by steering sales through an Irish accounting unit.
Likewise, Amazon managed sales of over $5 billion but paid
less than £1 million in tax. It avoids tax through an arrangement with an
office based in Luxembourg .
I am pleased that company executives from Starbucks, Google
and Amazon were recently dragged in front of the Public Accounts Committee to
give evidence to MPs.
But at this session, and throughout the media, there has
been one continuing refrain. Company after company has justified its actions by
stating that what they were doing was "unquestionably legal.”
Maybe so, but I prefer to agree with the Chair of the Public
Accounts Committee. She said she was “not accusing” the companies of acting
illegally, but did accuse them of being “immoral.”
I welcome the fact that MPs are finally waking up to the
fact that they need to "beef up action against tax avoidance” and to
tackle the "systematic abuse" of the system by certain large firms.
But I also feel extremely angry that the Coalition has, in
the recent past, found time to agree a tax cut for millionaires and to push the
ridiculous notion of a “Pasty Tax,” but has so far done very little to tackle
widespread tax avoidance by some large multinationals.
This Government does need to take action and to work with other
European partners to change laws relating to taxation.
It is wrong that the “tax avoidance industry” can continue
to limit revenues to the Treasury, reducing what can be spent on vital public
services, while giving multinational companies an unfair advantage over smaller
firms and businesses.
All companies should make a fair and proportionate contribution
in terms of tax.
1 comment:
Have to watch Panorama this evening -http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p1zyg
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