Cadbury owner paid no UK corporation tax last year | Business | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... -last-year



Yes, you and every other major company that's somewhat legally obliged to rip off countries on behalf of your shareholders' maximised profits.

The bit I've never really understood when companies try to justify not paying any tax is this one..

“Importantly, independent academic research has also shown that as a business we are worth over £1bn to the wider UK economy, illustrating our impact reaches far beyond the factory gates.”

Er..so? First of all, one billion pounds sounds a lot, but in terms of the whole UK economy it's a pinprick. Secondly, do they think that if they weren't there people just wouldn't buy chocolate? That that money in people's pockets would somehow evaporate and not get recirculated? The truth of the matter is, their customers contribute one billion pounds to the economy by buying stuff. It just happens to be stuff they make, and it could just as easily be stuff their competitors make.

They're not in any way unique or special.

They're a [LIFTED] corporation who are doing exactly what corporations do, which is maximise shareholder return to the last penny they're legally able to and anything else be damned. Which is, you know, if not fine then at least it's what everybody really knows they're about. It's when they try to claim that that's not what they're about and that somehow the fact they're there is of itself some social good, that they just end up sounding like [LIFTED].

It's like when an Amazon (I think it was) executive claimed they paid £N million in tax a year and the number turned out to include the total income tax paid by all their employees. It just makes you look worse guys, just admit what you are and be open about it because in reality everyone knows already anyway.