I saw these articles and thought of this thread lol
Starbucks doesn't pay a bean in UK tax, Facebook Fools Taxman! :taxman:
Since coming to the UK in 1998, the coffee group has opened 735 outlets
Taken more than £3billion in sales but paid just £8.6million in corporation tax
In the last three years it's paid no UK tax at all despite £1.2billion in sales
Starbucks has paid just £8.6million in tax in 14 years of trading in Britain, it emerged last night – and nothing at all in the past three years.
The tiny payments to the Treasury come from a coffee chain whose 735 UK outlets have so far run up sales of £3billion.
It uses a range of complicated measures to minimise its profits – and its tax bill. These include paying large royalties to another arm of the firm for using the brand name.
Over the past three years the company, which prides itself on its ethical standards, paid no UK tax at all despite racking up sales of £1.2billion.
During 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available, the group posted a UK loss of £33million on sales of £398million. Because of this it paid no corporation tax.
By comparison, McDonald’s racked up a 2011 tax bill of £80million on £3.6billion of sales and KFC paid £36million on sales of £1.1billion.
Rival: Starbucks is the second largest restaurant or café chain in the world after McDonald's but claims to have made no profit in the UK over the last ten years
All of the practices deployed by Starbucks are legal.
The company’s US reports show that it incurred a tax rate of 31 per cent on its profits there last year. But for its overseas operations, which include the UK,
the company’s average tax rate was only 13 per cent.
How can a set of rules that are so biased against small businesses be justified? The local competitors aren't playing against Starbucks on a level playing field'
Tax accountant Richard Murphy
John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘The tax system is now so hideously complex that large companies can afford expensive accountants to find loopholes
and lower their tax bills. That can mean higher taxes for hard-pressed families.’
Last week it was revealed that Facebook, another American giant which has major UK operations, paid only £238,000 in tax despite raking in £175million in revenues.
The Mail has reported how Google avoided more than £200million in tax, only contributing £6million to HMRC during 2011 despite making revenues of £2.6billion.