Starbucks Vice President awarded “Prize Mug” As Company Dodges Paying UK Tax
Star*ucks | 29.11.2012 12:15 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Birmingham
Students at the University of Birmingham, along with members of the public, awarded a golden mug to Starbucks VP Marketing Ian Cranna yesterday ahead of a speech in Birmingham.
The mug was awarded for the company’s ‘mugging’ of the UK taxpayer. The VP Marketing was speaking at the University of Birmingham Business School as an engineering alumni – students wondered why someone from this particular company was invited to talk.
The mug was awarded for the company’s ‘mugging’ of the UK taxpayer. The VP Marketing was speaking at the University of Birmingham Business School as an engineering alumni – students wondered why someone from this particular company was invited to talk.
Starbucks UK was recently revealed to have dodged many millions of pounds of UK tax in the year 2011/12. It has failed to pay any corporation tax to the HMRC for the last three years – and only £8.5m since the company arrived in the UK in 1998. They achieve this through a number of payment scheme, which move money to subsidiaries.
One of the ways in which they do this is by having Starbucks UK pay fees for the use of the Starbucks name to a company based in a tax haven like Liechtenstein. Surprisingly these fees tend to be around about the level of profit the UK company makes each year, sometimes even more.
In 2011/12, Starbucks generated a turnover of £398m, on which it apparently made a loss and therefore paid no tax. By comparison, Costa Coffee achieved a comparable turnover of £377m and paid £15m in tax.
A Computer Science Student, William Squires, said “it’s appalling that Starbucks haven’t paid anything towards our public services in the last three years when we’ve been hit so hard.”
“It’s ridiculous that the government justifies cutting winter fuel allowance, which keeps the elderly from freezing to death, by claiming ‘there’s no money left’, whilst allowing massive corporations to get away with billions of pounds worth of tax” said protester Zoe Paterson.
Tax dodging firms and very wealthy individuals avoid paying around £25bn in tax each year by using loopholes and accountancy tricks to hide their profit, income or wealth. This forms part of a £120bn tax gap that could be plugged to vastly reduce the deficit, rather than cutting spending on public services or by increasing the level of tax that is supposed to be paid. Simply by taking strong action to ensure that companies and people pay the amount of tax they are supposed to, we could stop the cuts from happening.
The protest comes ahead of a UK Uncut national day of action against Starbucks on the 8th of December – which already has 24 actions listed on the UK Uncut website. The day of action will take place the first Saturday after the Chancellor’s autumn statement, in which he is expected to announce further public spending cuts.
In Birmingham people will meet at 12:30 at the Post Office on Pinfold Street to pay a visit to the Starbucks on Colmore Row by Victoria Square. This day of action is calling specific attention to how cuts are affecting women and women’s services, such as cuts to funding and housing benefit that are causing women’s refuges to close.
The event will run until 2pm, when UK Uncut will join the Boycott Workfare demonstration happening in town that day.
One of the ways in which they do this is by having Starbucks UK pay fees for the use of the Starbucks name to a company based in a tax haven like Liechtenstein. Surprisingly these fees tend to be around about the level of profit the UK company makes each year, sometimes even more.
In 2011/12, Starbucks generated a turnover of £398m, on which it apparently made a loss and therefore paid no tax. By comparison, Costa Coffee achieved a comparable turnover of £377m and paid £15m in tax.
A Computer Science Student, William Squires, said “it’s appalling that Starbucks haven’t paid anything towards our public services in the last three years when we’ve been hit so hard.”
“It’s ridiculous that the government justifies cutting winter fuel allowance, which keeps the elderly from freezing to death, by claiming ‘there’s no money left’, whilst allowing massive corporations to get away with billions of pounds worth of tax” said protester Zoe Paterson.
Tax dodging firms and very wealthy individuals avoid paying around £25bn in tax each year by using loopholes and accountancy tricks to hide their profit, income or wealth. This forms part of a £120bn tax gap that could be plugged to vastly reduce the deficit, rather than cutting spending on public services or by increasing the level of tax that is supposed to be paid. Simply by taking strong action to ensure that companies and people pay the amount of tax they are supposed to, we could stop the cuts from happening.
The protest comes ahead of a UK Uncut national day of action against Starbucks on the 8th of December – which already has 24 actions listed on the UK Uncut website. The day of action will take place the first Saturday after the Chancellor’s autumn statement, in which he is expected to announce further public spending cuts.
In Birmingham people will meet at 12:30 at the Post Office on Pinfold Street to pay a visit to the Starbucks on Colmore Row by Victoria Square. This day of action is calling specific attention to how cuts are affecting women and women’s services, such as cuts to funding and housing benefit that are causing women’s refuges to close.
The event will run until 2pm, when UK Uncut will join the Boycott Workfare demonstration happening in town that day.
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