Corporate Tax Evasion

I think that we tread far too cautiously around big business.We always hear the cry that we will scare away huge, work-generating enterprises if we do the proper thing and charge them a reasonable proportion of their profits in taxes. But I think that the equation is fairly simple for the Google/Amazon/Starbucks of the world. In the UK, you might have an annual profit available of (let's say) 500m. We propose to take 200m of that away from you in tax, by stopping you avoiding UK corporation tax. Now, would you all like to abandon the UK in protest at our dreadful tax laws and forego the 300m you'll walk away with in your pocket ? In theory, the choice is between them staying in the UK and taking 300m profit out of it, or withdrawing from the market and taking nil instead.If the Board took the decision to withdraw from the UK, just because the UK was a higher taxing environment than before, I would not be a happy shareholder. Daddy wants his 300m !I know it's not quite that simple in the detail, but the principle holds broadly true.Our politicians should grow a pair or two.

Thanks for the detail on the corporation tax Straggler - it rather makes it more of an egregious avoidance, the tax rate being so low compared to higher rate income tax payers, doesn't it ? I have no answer to any of those questions. However, one thing that I think that we can do as citizens, is make it far more acceptable and common to question the validity of the threat which companies make that they will withdraw from our country if we tax them reasonably. It is rare indeed for that claim to be challenged on news channels, and the more we raise our voices to say "Hold on - that sounds like complete and utter bollocks to me", then hopefully the more people like Paxman and Humphries will challenge the assumption, and the easier it will then be for politicians to get with the programme.

Indeed ! Another good one is "sweet Fanny Adams", also meaning "nothing", but used more in place of a noun than an adjective As in "How much UK tax did Starbucks pay last year ?" - "Sweet Fanny Adams !"Edited by vimesey, : Example provided