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Kraft's bid to cut its UK tax bill

jklt | 06.12.2010 16:22

Rip off business
The new US owners of Cadbury's chocolate are working on a secret plan to shift key parts of the 186-year-old British business to Switzerland in a move likely to deprive the UK exchequer of millions of pounds of tax.
US food giant Kraft is to relocate part of the Cadbury business to Switzerland in a move which could save millions on its UK tax bill.

Kraft faced a storm of protest after backing out of a promise to keep the Somerdale factory in Keynsham open when it bought Cadbury earlier this year.

The company has said the reorganisation, which will have no significant impact on its UK staffing levels, will see Cadbury integrated into its existing European business model.
Kraft, which took control of Cadbury in an £11bn takeover this year, intends to turn the firm into a subsidiary of a new Swiss company. The new structure would slash its bill for UK corporation tax. Last year, Cadbury handed over £200m to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Kraft's plans, are likely to fuel anger at the manoeuvres used by big corporations to avoid tax.

We should insist that a clampdown on tax avoidance which would reduce the government's £83bn of public spending cuts.

Kraft uses a Swiss ownership structure for its existing UK business.
A spokesman said it was "integrating Cadbury into this model". He said "Switzerland is a tax efficient location", but insisted the decision to change Cadbury's legal structure is "about growing the top line of the company".
Which seems to me to be double speak for, "We can rip you off without any comeback - so we will, tough".

Cameron's track record is already worse than Thatcher's

It has taken David Cameron and Nick Clegg little over six months to have riots in the streets. Thousands have demonstrated over the Afghan invasion and ongoing infanticide, slaughter and destruction in the name of a pipeline.
As housing benefit, social housing and the vulnerable are targeted, they demanded "Welfare not Warfare."

While David Cameron lectured the Chinese on human rights the windows of Conservative Central Office were being smashed and occupied by education protesters. Every developing country knows that a healthy and educated country becomes a prosperous and content country.
Attempts were made to break in to Downing Street through defences erected by the last Tory leader to cause unrest on such a scale. Thatcher's riots - in spite of her very "nasty party" - took far longer to manifest.
Public services are being speedily and stealthily privatised by the back door.

These manoeuvres are being implemented by a cabal of millionaires with no clue as to the battles ordinary people face on a day to day basis.
There are certainly more riots by other sectors of society to follow.
What is the government's response to this winter of extreme discontent? The commissioning of a £2 million survey to find out what makes people unhappy.

And a little closer to home I thought it was worth checking out our what a local Con Dem MP Steve Williams might of written about all the cuts we are beginning to experience.
Well I can save you the time of checking his blog 'cause he's written sweet FA.

jklt
- Original article on IMC Bristol: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/702389