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Hang your heads in shame, Labour and Coalition governments.

Starbucks has paid just ?8.6 million corporation tax in 14 years trading in the UK with sales of over ?3bn. They have carried out a complex tax avoidance dodge during that time.

For the last 3 years they have paid no corporation tax at all because they have reported a loss to HMRC. Despite this "loss", Starbucks executives told investment fund analysts that the UK business was "successful", "profitable" and they were "very pleased with the performance".

Amazon has generated ?7.6 bn in Uk sales in the last 3 years and paid no corporation tax. Now you could argue that they are paying a lot of National INsurance tax etc etc but there are plenty of UK companies who do that and pay their rightful wack of corporation tax e.g. the independent coffee shops, bookshops etc.

The bottom line is that if either the Labour government or the coalition had displayed any guts whatsoever in this area in terms of closing down tax avoidance loopholes which are resulting in enormous tax losses, we would not have a bloody deficit in the first place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19967397

Here they seem so, well, right on and fit to be New Labour heroes.



I would think that with regards to your post, Tony Blair et al positively encouraged such behaviour and probably looked upon it as a prototype for the "Tony Blair Foundation" and to be fair, the coalition have not really had time to sort this out.

"I would think that with regards to your post, Tony Blair et al positively encouraged such behaviour "

Do you want me to provide links to coalition backers tax dodges?

To use your term "to be fair" the coalition government has had more than enough time to have the biggest top down reorganisation of the NHS ever seen, privatise huge chunks of the NHS, sack 100,000s of public sector workers including HMRC tax inspectors!

Given we are halfway through the parliament, this is more than enough time to get stuck into these tax loopholes. The coalition cannot go on and on blaming everyone else for failure.

The Labour government has much to answer for and so do the coalition!

Have to concur with DJ on this one. Absolute fucking disgrace.

The hoi polloi (yes - that's us lot!) get pursued to the ends of the earth by the Taxman over poxy 100 quid, with all manner of threats and penalties for not paying up on time.

Yet at the same time, HMRC is more than happy to cut sweetheart deals with big corporations and let them off to the tune of billions with a nod and a wink.

The entire tax system has been in need of a root & branch overhaul for a very long time, but the sad truth is that politicians of all stripes simply aren't interested. Too busy cosying up to their mates in big business.

"We're all in this together"?? In a pig's ear!

- Eric

No doubt Starbucks top dogs were familiar with the bloke in this vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w4tcIsa ... e=youtu.be

Amazon, Boots, Starbucks, Arcadia Group, eBay.... Our government needs to tax these companies properly as we're effectively just robbing ourselves when we hand over our hard earned cash to them.

They also sell a shit product, Costa is teen times better, that's how shallow I am.

I wonder if they have the same tax lawyer as Rangers maybe ??

Apparently, Arqiva, a private sector monopoly, regulated by Ofcom, runs all UK terrestrial television broadcasters and for BBC radio and most commercial radio services.

It also supplies the government with mobile and wireless communications and supplies three quarters of all police forces.

It receives annual losses of about ?250m. One wonders why they bother to stay in business? THe ultimate owners of the company appear to be based in Bermuda and we do not know who they are. However we know Arqiva has paid no corporation tax for 4 years.

Get those end of year tax returns in now. You wouldn't want any of HMRC's nasty fines, would you?

In addition to the scandal of not paying a fair amount of tax, such arrangements give an unfair trading advantage over domestic based companies. Similar to the way British based internet porn companies are forced to trade as opposed to foreign ones.

So apart from conning the public into paying ?2-50 for a coffee that costs 30p to make they also dodge tax. Glad I don't frequent their shops.