Ebay again....

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

eBay had profits of £800 million in the uk last year and managed to pay £1 million in Corportation

Tax, instead of £50 million which should be due. They use Luxembourg as a tax haven.

See the Daily Mail 21 October 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220907/eBay-avoids-50m-corporation-tax-channelling-payments-Luxembourg.html

If these corporations paid the proper taxes in the countries that they did business, then we may not have

To cut back on essential services.

Cheers

Adrian.

[sparkyjon]

says it all , this country shouldnt allow them to trade, but as always bend over Britain strikes again..

[JamesF]

The problem is that UK case law enshrines the right of individuals and corporate bodies to arrange their affairs such as to minimise their tax burden. UK corporate law requires that the officers of the company must act in the best interests of the share holders and generally the shareholders are corporate bodies who want to see the best return on their investment. The directors can be sued if it is demonstrable that they are not doing so. It should therefore not only be unsurprising that Ebay, Amazon, Starbucks et al. organise their affairs in this way, but actually surprising if they didn't.

The way to fix this problem is not to harangue these companies for complying with the law, but to change the law. It is however easy for the media and parliament to be very negative about companies and people who comply with the law in a way that doesn't suit them, but rather more difficult (if there is even the will at all) to fix the situation in a way that is equitable. HMRC has for the last fifteen years or more been attempting to twist the facts to get some people and companies to pay the amount of tax they think is due rather than the amount that is legally due and it wouldn't surprise me given the number of tribunals and court cases where decisions have been awarded against them that it's actually cost the public purse considerably more than it has gained.

I'm probably in favour of changing the law such that large amounts of money spent in the UK can't get syphoned off overseas to avoid paying tax on it, but my suspicion is that there are rather too many vested interests amongst those with the power to do so.

James

[Stargazer_00]

says it all , this country shouldnt allow them to trade, but as always bend over Britain strikes again..

Luxemborg has more registered companies than population. It's just one of those things.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Gentlemen, I think this discussion is now heading into political territory, hence it will be locked.