More Tesco Tax Avoidance

LOL. There really is nothing quite like starting from a false premise & then trying to justify it!

Even though it wouldn't be practical to move my local Tesco to the British Virgin Islands, there is still scope for moving some of the profits from it there by transfer pricing. For example, the shop building could be owned by a company located there, and financed by a loan from a company located there. The suppliers could be located there and so on.

Smart-alec avoidance tactics by international corporate lawyers just shift an unfair proportion of the tax burden onto small businesses and ordinary people. You might be pleased about that, but I'm certainly not.

"Steve Walker" wrote

As Mark rightly pointed out, it's not *them* that set up the UK tax framework -- it's the UK Govt!

"Steve Walker" wrote

Would you suggest that they should instead make sure they pay *more* tax than they are required to, under the tax framework imposed on them? If so, why?

Taxing your way to prosperity is like standing in a bucket and trying to pick youreself up by the handle - (Winston Churchill in best nail head collision mode).

As a customer of Tesco, it does please me a bit that they can reduce tax bills as otherwise they'd have to charge higher prices to make up for it. As a UK taxpayer, though, it does annoy me somewhat that the government has created a system which encourages multinationals to pay taxes elsewhere rather than into the pot that my taxes have to fund (although it's not a huge loss to me as corporation tax is a fairly small component of government income). And yes, if I ran a small business taxed in the UK I'd be very annoyed that the tax rules seem designed to make most small British businesses ex-businesses and most large British businesses ex-British. None of that, however, is Tesco's fault - they're just working within the system as designed.

Mark

Indeed; on a personal level, as a booze-cruiser, I'm more than happy to pay the Belgian or Luxembourg Government the relevant taxes that they impose on their tobacco rather than pay the UK Government.

Their gain is the UK's loss......

A telling comment: "As a customer ofTesco...".

The remedy is in your own hands.

A remedy to what? I'm not the one complaining about Tesco. As long as the current UK tax regime persists, it's probably in my interests for them to take their tax liability to Switzerland.

Mark

What "remedy" might that be then?

Correct.

But much as I loathe most of what Allan Tracey says, in this case for once, that was not a false premise.

Which still doesn't make your post relevant.

As I say, loads posted here isn't relevant, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest whether it was or not.

But it does annoy me - slightly - when you then try to say it is.

Is it?

Why?

Although of course, totally out of context, it is pretty meaningless, but never mind that.

To claim that taxation is evil, is to live with your head in a bucket.

Shop elsewhere.

Silly. A remedy is something that fixes a problem. What problem exactly would shopping elsewhere fix? Do you think Tesco saving a little tax, thereby saving their customers a little money, is a problem because some of its tax is diverted abroad? [A lot of money is diverted abroad anyway because goods are imported.] Or is the tax thing a non-issue for you and your real problem with Tesco is simply that they overdominate the market? In that case your comments are out of place in this context.

Exactly how is that a "remedy"?

Perhaps you could explain what it is we are supposed to be "remedying", then we might just understand why that could be one.

Unless you just completely failed to understand the phrase "a necessary evil"?

I disagreed with the statemnt that taxation is evil.

That you apparently agree with that statement does not surpise me at all.

So you think it is OK for large organisations to spend millions themselves in order to paying tax when they know very well that what they are doing is just getting round the wishes/ intentions of parliament?

The net result of this is that Government have to raise taxes in a different fashion - probably from those who cannot afford expensive accountants/lawyers. Are you happy with that approach?

There are different levels of "tax avoidance" - some of which I think are perfectly reasonable - and probably what the Government expected. There are then other actions which are very much against the intent of parliament; it is these which I (and I suspect most decent people) object to.