I see that under new editorship, the Mail has gone all Grauniad.
Almost one in five of Britain’s biggest companies paid not a penny of corporation tax in the UK last year, it can be revealed.
Oh, the horror!
The Mail on Sunday has managed to obtain the details of the tax paid by 69 of the FTSE 100 group of largest companies on the stock market – many of which do not publish these figures in their annual reports.
Do I look like I give a whatsit? I really, really don’t care. And if those companies are engaging in effective avoidance strategies to keep as much as possible from the thieving hands of the avaricious state, then that’s a good thing as they are displaying both fiscal competence and due diligence towards their stakeholders.
The remaining 31 refused or failed to respond to repeated requests to disclose their tax payments.
I’d do likewise. No one else’s business – least of all the fake news peddlers of the mainstream media.
Where details could be obtained, 13 firms – equivalent to one in five of the 69 that came clean – either paid no corporation tax in Britain or received a tax credit from HM Revenue & Customs.
Good. That’s less money pissed up the wall by bumbling bureaucrats or fake charities.
Usually firms pay corporation tax of 19 per cent of their total profits.
Which is far too high anyway. However, the word here is “profits”. If they make a loss, then they don’t pay the tax. If they are paying tax elsewhere, then they don’t get taxed twice. It really is that simple. Even simple enough for a cretinous mainstream journalist to understand.
BP made £5.6 billion in profit last year – yet still received tax credits worth £134million. That meant it was a net receiver of tax money in the UK, rather than contributing to the cost of running the country where its shares are listed.
Well, I very much doubt that they broke the law – maybe they paid that tax in another jurisdiction. But so what? That money will be better spent by them than by the state.
Some firms are even paying their chief executives more than they pay in tax.
So? This is relevant how? Oh, that’s right, it isn’t.
The Mail on Sunday’s Fair Play on Tax campaign has called for a level playing field – including spelling out how much revenue and profit they make in each country they operate – so that UK firms which pay their dues can more easily compete with multinational giants.
Sounds like Richard Murphy has taken over at the Mail… Either way, a low tax regime will be a step in the right direction. If you keep taxes low then it will encourage companies to pay tax in your jurisdiction rather than, say, the Republic of Ireland. It’s called competition and it works for tax just as it does for any other commodity.
Last night, Dame Margaret Hodge, formerly chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘Tax avoidance by large corporations is a blight on this country. It means there is less money for our underfunded public services.
‘This shocking revelation by The Mail on Sunday shows the Government is still failing to get to grips with this scandal.
Ah, that old hypocrite. It’s not a scandal. Nor is it a blight, nor is it remotely shocking. And our public services are over funded and bloated with wastefulness. The less they get, the better.
BP and Centrica’s tax credits are understood to relate to the payments for decommissioning oil and gas rigs.
There you go – a simple explanation. Nothing to see here. They are playing by the rules. Don’t like it? Well, change the rules.
Centrica’s annual report says it ‘received a cash refund of tax overpaid in periods prior to 2015’. BP boss Bob Dudley was paid more than £10million last year.
I just love the way they roll these two entirely unrelated statements together in order to generate outrage. The only thing that outrages me is the greed of the state and they sheer hypocrisy of the fair tax morons.
Mining firms were prominent among the 13 companies which pay no tax. Several said there is no reason for them to pay tax in Britain, as their operations are overseas and their profits generated there.
Again, a simple, logical, rational and reasonable explanation. Nothing to get worked up about – unless you are a far left fuckwit who wants to steal other people’s money to piss up the wall on vanity projects.
But Alex Cobham, of the Tax Justice Network, says even if the mines are abroad, often there is a significant management presence in the UK.
Irrelevant. Moron.
Have those at the Mail decided to follow the Guardian’s business model then? Nowadays people only read it to laugh at the idiocy and fisk their deranged articles.
And as the Guardian is going bankrupt then I suspect the Mail is going the same way and good riddance. Sounds like a win to me.
‘Almost one in five of Britain’s biggest companies paid not a penny of corporation tax in the UK last year, it can be revealed.’
Aha! They seek to lie with the truth and hope we won’t notice.
‘… paid not a penny… in the UK…’ That would be because they paid corporation tax in the jurisdictions where it was earned or value added and UK has double tax treaties with many Countries, so tax not paid twice.
‘..yet still received tax credits worth £134million. That meant it was a net receiver of tax money in the UK…’
A tax credit is an offset against a tax liability. The company does not receive anything. And a tax credit can only be applied to a payment, so unless the tax due was £134 million, then the company was a net payer of tax. If tax liability is zero, and you get a tax credit for £134 million, that is bad luck, you don’t get £134 million.
‘… including spelling out how much revenue and profit they make in each country they operate –‘
That information will be in the statutory corporate accounts filed in each Country, plus the consolidated accounts of the parent company which will also include eliminations so that profits are not counted twice if there are inter company transactions, and so that tax already paid in other Countrues is not paid again in the jurisdiction of the parent company.
Of course you have to read the accounts and be able to understand them, something beyond the abilities of the lazy, reptilian class of the media.
Being thick as pigshit is a requirement for journalism these days.
And they all seem to be overqualified, by that criterion.
At the moment I pay no Income Tax and have not done so for the last nearly four years. Why? Because I emigrated to New Zealand and although I am in receipt of two pensions which take me above the tax threshold, the New Zealand tax rules state that new immigrants get a 4 year tax holiday, to enable them to settle in and establish a new home. A sensible rule which for me runs out next April. I do not live tax free however as like everyone else I pay General Sales Tax (like VAT) , which in New Zealand applies to everything. I pay no tax on my pensions which are paid from the UK, in the UK, because I live in New Zealand. No one should pay double tax just because the Tax warriors think you should.
Which leaves a problem for the rest of us! We can’t afford the top-flight tax lawyers to minimise OUR liabilities. Since HMRC ALWAYS goes for the easy targets, any reduction in tax paid by the big multinationals just gets dumped onto small businesses and the general public…
Well, there is that. However, I use an accountant who understands that I don’t wish to donate unnecessarily to the Treasury’s coffers.
Sounds good to me, management presence in the UK will all be paying Income Tax & NI which is more than double 19% corporation tax; ditto for BPs Bob Dudley £10M pay.
Typical Left “Hate not Hope”