Bosses take tax liberties

    This month US company Liberty Global took over Virgin Media. Having taken over ‘losses’ racked up by Virgin while constructing their cable network, Liberty will pay no corporation tax for the foreseeable future.

    Although Virgin recorded three successive years of profit, they aimed to still offset these historic losses against tax.

    Apparently they have a lot of latitude in deciding this amount and chose a sum meaning they won’t make profit quickly enough to be eligible for corporation tax, probably for 15 years.

    Outgoing chief executive Neil Berkett is compensated for being relieved of his duties by a $78 million share allocation.

    Had Virgin been paying corporation tax ‘regularly’ they would be paying about £100 million a year.

    Imagine the Con-Dems’ outrage if ordinary workers asked to deduct travel expenses to and from work or interest on overdrafts and credit card debts against tax.

    Those caught out over tax dodging constantly say they complied with all relevant local tax laws. But the tax regime is so ‘business friendly’ that there are hundreds of scams that businesses use that aren’t open to normal working folk.

    The main capitalist parties won’t do anything about this. A workers’ government must close these loopholes and take these companies into democratic public ownership.

    Clive Walder