Scratching my head at this one……quite a contradiction.
An investigation into Starbucks in the UK has shown that despite £3 billion in UK sales since 1998, only £8.6 million has been paid in tax. That’s a tax rate of less than 1%.
So that suggests……
(1) They are hugely unprofitable and have had many years of losses.
Or
(2) They are hugely profitable but have found a loop hole (or two) in the UK tax system.
Or
(3) HMRC are useless at upholding tax rules.
I’ll let you make your own mind up on this one. But does a company that plans to create 5,000 new jobs over the next 5 years and shareholders were recently told by company executives that the UK business was "successful", "profitable" and they were "very pleased with their performance" sound like a company making losses?
Regrettably, my money is on a mixture of (2) and (3).
One day we will have a fair and just tax system that is policed efficiently.
One day.
Yup, suspect you're right on this one, I commented last week that people should be getting in a media fit over the rules that say they owe bugger all instead of pillorying Starbucks for paying what's due. Simplify the tax rules and start collecting and all of a sudden the war chest will look a little healthier
ReplyDeleteIt's hardly rocket science is it? Well, it clearly is for W1
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