Time to shoot a corporate capitalist?
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:02 pm
Another heartwarming story about government stupidity and tax avoidance.
So first we had the private finance initiative which allows corporate Britain to rip off the taxpayer by funding schools and hospital building on the never never. This spiffing idea invented by John Major and used extensively by the Labour government has resulted in spiraling government debts related to these capital projects.
And to give an extra kicking to the taxpayer we hear that HSBC has taken the money from these projects and put it in the offshore tax haven of Guernsey. In six months last year HICL (the offshore company setup by HSBC) - made more than ?38m profit from its 33 PFI schemes around the country and paid ?100,000 in UK tax. That equates to less than half of 1% of the profits.
You may notice that half of 1% is slightly less than the amount of tax that we poor folk might pay. Tax avoidance is entirely legal and given governments of all description have failed to stop this, it would be quite nice to see the occasional corporate capitalist carrying out this wheeze, shot and left in a gutter somewhere.
I dont really mean this officer, honest!
Cheers
D
So first we had the private finance initiative which allows corporate Britain to rip off the taxpayer by funding schools and hospital building on the never never. This spiffing idea invented by John Major and used extensively by the Labour government has resulted in spiraling government debts related to these capital projects.
And to give an extra kicking to the taxpayer we hear that HSBC has taken the money from these projects and put it in the offshore tax haven of Guernsey. In six months last year HICL (the offshore company setup by HSBC) - made more than ?38m profit from its 33 PFI schemes around the country and paid ?100,000 in UK tax. That equates to less than half of 1% of the profits.
You may notice that half of 1% is slightly less than the amount of tax that we poor folk might pay. Tax avoidance is entirely legal and given governments of all description have failed to stop this, it would be quite nice to see the occasional corporate capitalist carrying out this wheeze, shot and left in a gutter somewhere.
I dont really mean this officer, honest!
Cheers
D