Thats just a bit of left wing tosh dressed up as news.

tax avoidance is not illegal. Tax evasion is.

If they are not paying tax here like as not they are paying it somewhere else on their worldwide earnings.

UK companies do it all of the time in other countries for example in making the decision as to whether to set up a foreign operation of subsidiary dependant upon how worldwide losses are profits are to be handled in the various countries concerned.

Companies have a duty to chase the most tax efficient approaches for the benefit of their shareholders. Governments comply to the extent that such is beneficial to them. If we came down in some draconian manner on the likes of Starbucks then what do you think might happen in the states to the likes of BP?

No doubt some MP will now read that, overreact and we end up with more botched, half thought through legislation that we don't need taking less tax than was being collected prviously (Yes labour, you should all rot in the bowels of hell for IR35).

Lke all large firms Starbucks will pay enough to keep them on the right side of the law. They will pay some very good bookkeepers and accountants lot of money to make sure of that and I see no issue with minimising tax. The only issue surely should be not paying the tax that is actually due.

Oops, got to go, back in an hour (that was fun... Guess you can tell I'm not a socialist, lol),

Shaun.

No it's not illegal. That's the point. If they were paying elsewhere it wouldn't be such an issue.

In the documentary I watched they often were not paying tax somewhere else or they were negotiating 1 percent with tax authorities in other countries.

If large co's contributed more on earnings generated in the UK may be we could all pay less including the employees of the companies

I don't get how a minimum wage earner has to hand over a higher % than a high earning company???

Ok, so by that logic, when a UK bank makes lots of money in India or China by your arguement they should pay their money to the Indian or Chinese Governments on their profits rather than in UK Taxes?

People like the tax justice network are just bleating complainers who take arguements as far as it benefits them without looking at the whole picture which would tend to be less convenient to their arguements.

So how are the likes of Starbucks avoiding tax? Could it be that they are using tax breaks to invest in infrastucture projects to grow the business? God forbid that anyone actually grows now in order to make more (taxable) profit later.

Certainly if I were in a position that I could either inest in growth or pay tax the money would go on growth every time. And as an offshoot of that, growth equates to jobs equates to less paid out in benefits and more tax income.

Socialist Government and bleating lefties have just about beaten the entrepeneurial spirit out of this country. I think that the arguement given would have been somewhat different had it been lifted from the pages of the Telegraph rather than the Gaurdian.

bah humbug...

lol, Shaun.