If an organisation is making a loss, then why should it pay corporation tax? (Even if the loss is convenient to reducing tax burden on profits it makes elsewhere). And the UK Government needs to stop wasting money by the billions on f***** stupid ventures like HS2; having expensive inquiries into every gnats a*se; having meetings about meetings; equipping the armed forces with proper equipment for the purpose instead of wasting billions on stuff they don't need.....(FYI, I can buy good quality brand new desert combat boots for less than £20 a pair and the suppliers, sorry the 'licensed' military surplus collector; has thousands of pairs........yet nearly all the personnel bought their own); wasting millions on the NHS and shutting hospitals, losing bed spaces all because they can't sort out how much money is being wasted within the NHS. What typifies the whole of the UK is the Local Authority that has prevented its Refuse Collection personnel (dustmen) and vehicles (dustcarts) to travel along roads which are heavily potholed in case the poor little b*ggers suffer from vibration and spine injuries...................But they can't fill the f***** potholes, can they? I was asked several years ago by a US visitor "What do I think of the UK as a whole?".....I replied "It should be filled in"...... As for your sarcastic comment, it might serve you to spend six months or so in the UK instead of where you are now........because I will guarantee it has got a bl**dy sight worse that what it was when you were last here. AL
I spent four years there from 2005 to 2009. (London). Has it got worse since? I pop over every 3 months or so. I look at the BBC news and other current affairs programmes, try to keep myself vaguely informed.
If Starbucks was making a loss on their UK operation, why has it said it will start paying UK Corporation Tax in the next year's accounts? I'm not suggesting that companies pay tax on losses, I'm suggesting they pay tax on profits. If they make a profit in a country, they ought to pay tax on the profit, not artificially "spirit away" the profits on the back of spurious and artificial accountancy systems. I could agree with all of this but it doesn't change how I feel about sharp accountancy. And I will vouch for Glidd's take on the issue - I live here all the time. Incidentally, I cannot afford to take foreign holidays. This is in part because I pay my taxes via PAYE, with no way of magically reducing the bill - and I have to subsidise those who don't pay their share for whatever reason.
Accountancy isn't history in numbers. It's fiction in numbers. Accountants tell the story that management wants to hear, by and large. It's dead easy to turn a money-making venture into a loss-making one. Just set up a brand ownership company in a tax haven and charge the commercial company whatever you want to use the brand name. Hey presto, a loss in one place and a profit in another one. This is the little wheeze that is employed to avoid tax. It either annoys you, or you think it's marvellous and well done. Does it make sense that Apple keeps tens of billions of $ in Ireland, and then has to issue bonds in the US to pay the dividend? Well, it does if you want to sit on your hoard which you don't dare distribute on the pain of having to give some of it away. That sounds a lot more like greed to me.
2009? Worse? I should say so...... BBC News.....disfunctional, like the Govt.........you might as well read the Daily Mail (or the Mirror)...... AL
There is a stark difference between sharp accountancy and crooked accountancy.......Sharp accountancy, in my mind, is by an accountant who knows that what he is doing is not illegal, but ensures his client pays as little tax as possible. I also subsidise those that don't contribute, having been paying PAYE (or the equivalent) since I started work......in 1968 (I was a chimney sweep's 'boy', y'know)..and I am still on PAYE. Now, quoting Glidd......... "It's dead easy to turn a money-making venture into a loss-making one. Just set up a brand ownership company in a tax haven and charge the commercial company whatever you want to use the brand name. Hey presto, a loss in one place and a profit in another one" That's exactly what I am saying.....if the Govt and HMRC allow organisations to do this (and there are several ways of them doing it, which aren't illegal and fall within the HMRC rules etc etc) then in my opinion, they should get their act together to prevent it, but obviously, they were too stupid to see it could happen in the forst place............to legislate against now, again, in my opinion, looks like sour grapes and 'I want a slice too!!' AL
Everyday life in the UK, in person, pally.... PS....I have also lived in Switzerland way back in the 80s and it was totally different to the UK which I believe was in a / on its way to a decline then......there is no comparison (in my opinion)
Not a great deal I see when I am in the UK ever fills me with a great desire to come back. It's highly unlikely that I ever will.
There's illegal and there's immoral. Illegal is something you can measure, immoral is a matter of opinion. I see where you are coming from, but a legal loophole is simply a gap in the legislation - it shouldn't be a licence to print your own money. Wow. What was Queen Victoria really like? All I want too is for government to get its act together - hey, we agree!
I don't 'kin blame you...........If I hadn't had family responsibilities in the 80s and 90s, I would have emigrated......probably to OZ.....but when I started looking at the possiblity again in the late 90s, I soon discovered I was too old for them to want me despite my skills (they want healthy people with skills and loadsamoney, so they aren't a drain on the State...........A lesson to be learned by the UK, I reckon).
Well, I'm glad we finally agree on something. it is in the nature of corporations to be immoral. Unlike some of the philanthropist captains of industry of the late Victorian era (Port Sunlight, Bourneville), the only thing that counts for today's top managers is inflating the share price. That's fair enough - it's what they are paid for. Of course you can take things like that too far. You can employ slave labour, not do your ecological bit, not be a fair player in society. Most corporations go to great lengths to give the impression that they are responsible corporate citizens, but as we see, when it hits their wallet... It is very much the job of governments to ensure that the blatant tax-avoiding piss-take comes to an end. Of course, politicians have known about it for years, but as usual, unless the general public gets stirred up about it, they can't be trusted to provide sensible government. My rage is more with the governments than the corporations. Government at least pretends to be working in the interests of the people, corporations make no bones about shafting everyone to make a buck.
If there is a gap in legislation, surely it can be exploited..... ....Face it, if you got nicked for speeding and were going to be banned and fined heavily, but you found out that the speed limit was illegal..........'Yes, Your Honour, my name is Loz and I am guilty of speeding so please lock me up'.......F Orf, would you hell. She was an ugly old tart and I had to climb up her chimney as well.... This government and any more of their ilk cannot get it together and they won't.....It needs a complete and radical change in the way the UK is run, instead of the arty farty, namby pamby p*ssing about that has been done over the past 20 years or so (if not longer).........
If I could get out of the charge by spinning a pretty tale, sure. Who would blame me? However, it is the magistrates duty to apply the law fairly, to everyone. That's his job. He should be doing it, not listening to a fairytale that my brief dreamt up for me. I bloody knew it ... you were sweet on the old bint, weren't you? Good luck in your election campaign. I'll vote for you.
Boy, you have been away for a while haven't you? Companies have always tried to shaft everyone.....and we knew it..............Governments have always done it openly as well, but we were too blind to see it properly. Here's another take on Govt and the green thing..........Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, Yes?.........Well that's what the populations are being told by Govt and scientists; and they are making us pay for the damage (oh sorry, shafting us by taxation) Well, here's news....Carbon Dioxide is not a greenhouse gas...........It is food for trees and plants etc etc; which it seems so many idiots in Govt seem to want to destroy.
It wouldn't be spinning a pretty tale would it?..........It would be a material fact that either the legislation was missing a section or had not been properly applied by those that are supposed to dictate and enforce it. AL..... = Albert Too old for PM now.........and PMS.
And does the gap in legislation mean I actually wasn't travelling, say, 59mph in a 30? Either I was, or I wasn't. Legislation makes no difference to how fast I was travelling. You're only as old as the Monarch you're porking.
