squidge
31-Oct-12, 08:50
Tax Avoidance has been discussed here regularly and today there is an article in the Guardian http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/commentisfree/2012/oct/30/roll-call-corporate-rogues-tax which says that the amount of tax being "avoided" is estimated to be £120 billion a YEAR. This surely is immoral and the avoidance of tax by corporations is a serious drain on the economy of the country. It was widely reported last week that Starbucks has avoided paying any corporation tax for the last three years - surely that cannot be condoned. According to this article "The Tory MP and tax lawyer Charlie Elphicke estimates 19 US-owned multinationals are paying an effective tax rate of 3% on British profits, instead of the standard rate of 26%."
Now when the government are targeting the weak and the vulnerable on an almost weekly basis then it is surely their responsibility to close these legal loopholes and ensure that they are working with other countries to minimise the ability of huge corporations to avoid their tax responsibilities. There seems to be lots of talk about moral repugnance but little or no effort. This film was shown at the Scottish Lib-Dem conference http://thehardesthit.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/the-hardest-hit-our-rights-our-independence-our-lives-video-released/ the transcript is here http://thehardesthit.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/hardest-hit-full-film-transcript.pdf Although the LibDems recently trumpeted their support for The plan to refuse an increase in benefit to people who have more than 2 children http://www.scotsman.com/news/lib-dems-will-accept-cap-on-benefits-in-return-for-tax-rises-on-rich-1-2601459 . I would hope that when people watch or read this they will want this government to act to stop this appalling behaviour by massively wealthy corporations.
Or do we not care.
Now when the government are targeting the weak and the vulnerable on an almost weekly basis then it is surely their responsibility to close these legal loopholes and ensure that they are working with other countries to minimise the ability of huge corporations to avoid their tax responsibilities. There seems to be lots of talk about moral repugnance but little or no effort. This film was shown at the Scottish Lib-Dem conference http://thehardesthit.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/the-hardest-hit-our-rights-our-independence-our-lives-video-released/ the transcript is here http://thehardesthit.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/hardest-hit-full-film-transcript.pdf Although the LibDems recently trumpeted their support for The plan to refuse an increase in benefit to people who have more than 2 children http://www.scotsman.com/news/lib-dems-will-accept-cap-on-benefits-in-return-for-tax-rises-on-rich-1-2601459 . I would hope that when people watch or read this they will want this government to act to stop this appalling behaviour by massively wealthy corporations.
Or do we not care.