Companies which are not in the least ashamed of how they operate their financial taxation are listed below. Comment given by each of these corporate giants is that their practices fall well within the law. While this is correct, it still doesn't make it ethical.
Google is there at the top of the list of alleged tax avoiders. Google paid just £6m in tax in 2011 on a UK turnover of £2.6bn. That fact was, of course, brought to you with the help of Google. I'm mildly embarrassed to be writing this on a Google owned blog.
"Sometimes we must join the beast in order to defeat the beast. I have avoided Google as much as possible for years now and use only the email connected to this blog for the purpose of writing on this blog. Semi boycotted. Yes, I know that I'm a hijo de la chingada, but so are you." -Me
Facebook – £238,000 in corporation tax in 2011 on U.K. revenue of £175m, according to analysts. I have no idea fucking what Facebook is or what it is used for other than the obvious tool of unscrupulous intelligence agencies to gather private data on as many people as possible. Boycotted.
Amazon, which pays its tax in Luxembourg and in 2010 paid just €5.5m on a whopping turnover of €7.5bn? I really like Amazon for its speed and cheapness. Presumably it is cheap in part because it pays its taxes in Luxembourg, and I've been complicit in the deal. Until I see some change in their shoreline policies, I have abandoned my account. Boycotted.
Apple, which reduces its U.K. tax bill by basing its European headquarters in Ireland, has figured less prominently than the other four U.S. multinationals in tax campaigners' sights, but it is now under the spot-light, with some tax experts suggesting that while its accounts show U.K. turnover of just over £1bn, a more realistic figure is £6.7bn. Yes, I am a little hypocritical weasel to be typing this on an Apple computer.
"I am looking to purchase a new computer in the coming weeks, I have £3500.00 to spend. I won't be going back to Apple, that's for fucking certain. Boycotted." -Me
Vodafone, which U.K. Uncut alleges obtained a very favourable tax settlement that left £6bn in back taxes unpaid. My contract with Vodaphone just ended, I won't be renewing it no matter which phone they continue to offer me for free. Boycotted.
Boots, another target for U.K. Uncut after moving its headquarters to Switzerland in 2008. In 2009-10, Boots paid just £14m on profits of £475m, equivalent to 3%. Vehemently Boycotted.
"Me, who worked hard, sometimes 15 hours per day, relocated to fulfil my employment obligations at the whim of a bureaucrat, has 2 children to feed, a wife who loves Gucci, and a government who likes to slip their proverbial cock into crevices which only God himself should see, earned £112,000 and paid 40% taxation whether I liked it or not."
I know that I'm a private citizen and I do not fall under the same taxation law as corporations, but it is still worthy of comparison. Something is seriously a foot here and I am pretty disgusted with the state of affairs, as should you fucking be. This list of law-wise taxbreakers goes on and will continue to grow, until the rules written by governments desperate to have multinationals doing business in their countries wherever they base themselves for tax purposes, ceases.
The unspoken corporate argument is that these companies are providing employment and their employees are paying tax, and that the little matter of corporate taxation can be largely overlooked.
Marginally understandable perhaps in these straitened economic times, but unfair on companies that do operate in one tax jurisdiction rather than move to whichever country offers the most favourable tax regime.
The final word? C U Next Tuesday, Sailor.
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