Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/651/10803
From The Socialist newspaper, 15 December 2010
Tories to legalise tax cheating
VODAFONE, THE company dealing in mobile phones and mobile internet, has mobile profits too. Revenue and Customs (HMRC) bosses recently decided to let the phone giant avoid paying up to £6 billion tax on profits made by a subsidiary based in a tax haven.
Last July, Tory treasury minister David Gauke appointed Vodafone's chief financial officer Andy Halford as a member of a boss-packed 'business forum on tax and competitiveness'. This forum has since produced a 'corporate tax roadmap' that gives Con-Dem legitimacy to Vodafone-style tax avoidance measures.
Under current law, profits from tax havens remain fully taxable in the UK unless HMRC chiefs smile on them. In future any income which is held in tax havens, specifically to avoid paying tax, will face a tax rate of just 8%.
Any worker earning a mere £7,500 a year could be paying twice as high a rate! So Vodafone's cheek will now benefit all other tax-cheating multinationals.
The Socialist supports all measures aimed at making big business pay its tax but a succession of pro-big business governments have made tax avoidance by multi-millionaire capitalists and their accountants easier and easier.
The best solution would be to take all these problems out of their hands. That is why socialists fight for these huge companies to be taken into public ownership with compensation only on the basis of proven need and run under democratic workers' control and management.
Kath White
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In The Socialist 15 December 2010:
Anti-cuts campaign
National Shop Stewards Network anti-cuts conference
Prepare to build the fight against all cuts in 2011
Fighting back against council cuts
Swansea: Council cuts must be fought
Salford Against Cuts gets organised
Socialist Party feature
Europe: Working class enters the struggle
Socialist Party news and analysis
US government turns the screws on WikiLeaks
Tommy Sheridan trial: Cameron's spin doctor let off the hook
Garment workers demand a living wage in Bangladesh
Socialist Party youth and students
Condemn brutal policing of students
Tories to legalise tax cheating
Interview with 24 November protesters
London students vote to coordinate with workers
Reports of 'Day X' fees protests
Youth democratic rights campaign: defend all victimised protesters
No more the 'apathetic generation'
Education
Education white paper: A threat to schools and teachers
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