Murdoch Empire and Tax Avoidance in UK
Press Droid | 11.07.2011 13:16 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles
Adding more fuel into the rising cesspool of the UK's political classes - politicians and powermongers of the main news media conglomerates, is, of course, Murdoch's non-payment and active avoidance of millions of pounds worth of tax. Squaring the growing total crisis of legitimacy of the ruling regime with the current financial crisis and the vast and unfair programme of cuts might make political sense right now.
"Research reveals that Mr Murdoch's main British holding company, Newscorp Investments, has paid no net corporation tax within these shores over the past 11 years. This is despite accumulated pre-tax profits of nearly £1.4bn. Payments were made in some years, but in others rebates were claimed.
The Newscorp Investments stable includes newspapers such as The Times and The Sun as well as a 40% share in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Had it paid the full 30% rate on its 1998 profit of £309m, it would have netted the Exchequer £92m. (Enough to buy thousands of school textbooks, something that the Murdoch press is currently encouraging parents to do by way of collecting newspaper tokens.)
But while just about any company worth its stock valuation will seek to trim its annual tax bill, Mr Murdoch's die-hard loyalty to the tax loophole has drawn wide criticism.
It's impossible to know exactly how News Corp achieves such tax "efficiency". Despite being a quoted company, and therefore having to file accounts for public inspection, its financial make-up is a baffling web of inter-relationships between subsidiaries spread across the world.
Such opaqueness is thought to deter potential investors and therefore goes someway to explaining the downside of minimising tax payments.
However, analysts suggest Mr Murdoch's team broadly employ three strategies:
Tax relief claimed on debt interest repayments.
A reliance on off-shore tax havens.
Exploiting global differences in accounting standards.
The first principle, which effectively allows companies to off-set profits against previous losses, is well established, says Iain Stewart, a partner with the accountancy firm KPMG.
"If you were going into a country with a high tax rate you would tend to finance any investment into that country using debt," he says.
This effectively involves getting the holding company to lend money to the newly-formed, loss-making company.
About 60 News Corp subsidiaries are incorporated in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.
No- or low-tax havens are a tried and tested method of minimising contributions to the public coffers. Havens such as the Isle of Man and Jersey simply require companies not trading there to make an annual one-off corporation tax payment.
Hong Kong, now a part of China, where Mr Murdoch is conducting an increasing amount of business, has a corporation tax rate which, at 17%, is more than half that of the US.
News Corp's status as a truly multinational company enables it to make the most of varying accounting standards around the world. Australia, for example, where the company is incorporated, has some of the most relaxed accounting principles in the developed world.
Although tax avoidance, as practised by News Corp, is well within the law, the general public struggles to sympathise. But Mr Stewart calls for a wider understanding, saying tax avoidance is merely a counter to "tax nothings" - instances, such as creating employment, which go unrewarded by the taxman, despite helping the Exchequer.
And the higher the rates, the more likely they are to be avoided, he says.
"When the UK used to have 52% corporation tax, companies did so much in avoidance they used to end up paying 10%. Now it's 30% and companies in general pay 30%."
The Newscorp Investments stable includes newspapers such as The Times and The Sun as well as a 40% share in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Had it paid the full 30% rate on its 1998 profit of £309m, it would have netted the Exchequer £92m. (Enough to buy thousands of school textbooks, something that the Murdoch press is currently encouraging parents to do by way of collecting newspaper tokens.)
But while just about any company worth its stock valuation will seek to trim its annual tax bill, Mr Murdoch's die-hard loyalty to the tax loophole has drawn wide criticism.
It's impossible to know exactly how News Corp achieves such tax "efficiency". Despite being a quoted company, and therefore having to file accounts for public inspection, its financial make-up is a baffling web of inter-relationships between subsidiaries spread across the world.
Such opaqueness is thought to deter potential investors and therefore goes someway to explaining the downside of minimising tax payments.
However, analysts suggest Mr Murdoch's team broadly employ three strategies:
Tax relief claimed on debt interest repayments.
A reliance on off-shore tax havens.
Exploiting global differences in accounting standards.
The first principle, which effectively allows companies to off-set profits against previous losses, is well established, says Iain Stewart, a partner with the accountancy firm KPMG.
"If you were going into a country with a high tax rate you would tend to finance any investment into that country using debt," he says.
This effectively involves getting the holding company to lend money to the newly-formed, loss-making company.
About 60 News Corp subsidiaries are incorporated in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.
No- or low-tax havens are a tried and tested method of minimising contributions to the public coffers. Havens such as the Isle of Man and Jersey simply require companies not trading there to make an annual one-off corporation tax payment.
Hong Kong, now a part of China, where Mr Murdoch is conducting an increasing amount of business, has a corporation tax rate which, at 17%, is more than half that of the US.
News Corp's status as a truly multinational company enables it to make the most of varying accounting standards around the world. Australia, for example, where the company is incorporated, has some of the most relaxed accounting principles in the developed world.
Although tax avoidance, as practised by News Corp, is well within the law, the general public struggles to sympathise. But Mr Stewart calls for a wider understanding, saying tax avoidance is merely a counter to "tax nothings" - instances, such as creating employment, which go unrewarded by the taxman, despite helping the Exchequer.
And the higher the rates, the more likely they are to be avoided, he says.
"When the UK used to have 52% corporation tax, companies did so much in avoidance they used to end up paying 10%. Now it's 30% and companies in general pay 30%."
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