They Profit, We Pay: The Shameful Truth of Corporate Tax Avoidance

They Profit, We Pay: THE SHAMEFUL TRUTH OF CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE Total UK budget deficit (2012/13) £85.1bn Corporation Tax Owed Legal Aid Benefit Fraud NHS Nurses £2.2bn £2bn £1.2bn £0.2bn Corporation tax owed by Amazon, Starbucks, and The annual cost of The cost of benefit Salaries for 6,000 NHS nurses legal aid, pre-cuts fraud over the 2012/13 financial There are proposed cuts of £320m to civil legal aid to begin in 2014, with £220m off This would employ the 6,000 nurses reported to have lost their jobs due to NHS Google year Rate of 24%, as calculated according to the HMRC 2012 This figure is just 0.7% of the total annual benefits expenditure the annual criminal legal aid bill to0 cuts since the corporation tax rates coalition took power The unpaid corporation tax owed by just three global giants cost the UK treasury far more than the amount lost to benefit fraud. Corporation Tax Owed Amazon Starbucks Google £1bn £1bn £0.2bn Starbucks paid corporation The UK arm of Amazon paid just £2.4 million in corporation tax for 2012/13, despite UK sales of £4.2 billion. Google's UK operations claimed that their 2011 sales tax for the first time in four years in 2013. Their UK sales were £400 million last year were £395 million, on which they only paid £6 million in corporation tax. alone. The online retail giant dodged paying the full amount by routing sales through its European headquarters in Luxembourg. In their efforts to evade UK tax, money was transferred to a Dutch sister company, beans bought from Switzerland, and high interest rates paid. Reports from their parent company in California suggest that UK revenue may have in fact been closer to £2.6 billion that year. What could £2.2bn buy? 57,894 legal aid solicitors (earning £38k) Since the 1" April 2013, some types of case are no longer eligible for public funds, except in very limited circumstances. These include divorce, child contact, welfare benefits, clinical negligence, employment, and housing law. or £12.98 per week to the disabled claiming benefits This would help to offset the estimated £16.81 per week lost by claimants since the Disability Living Allowance was replaced by Personal Independence Payments. It is estimated that this move will see 500,000 disabled people have their claim removed. or 78,571 NHS nurses (earning £28k) According to a survey of 2,000 nurses carried out by the Safe Staffing Alliance in 2013, 40% said that there were not enough staff to provide a safe level of care on their last shift. or £4,471 off tuition fees for everyone who enrolled at a UK university in 2011 This would help to offset the huge increase in fees across many universities introduced in that same year. or 123,825 regular soldiers in the British Army (earning £17,767) Recent cuts to defence spending will see 20,000 regular soldiers cut - one fifth - by 2020. £2.2bn could pay the salaries of more than six times this figure. or 100,000 bobbies on the beat (earning £22k) The police force is having to make cuts of £2.4 billion by 2015 as a result of cuts of 20% in the amount of grants police authorities receive from the Home Office. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2357292/Google-boss-faces-paying-UK-tax-internet-giant-hires-pal-Prince-William-help-luxury-house- hunt.html dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185427/How-Google-avoided-paying-218m-tax-Internet-giants-cash-saving-deal-2-6bn-UK-earnings. html huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/16/amazon-under-fire-over-corporation-tax-avoidance_n_3284236.html parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/tax-avoidance-google/ news.sky.com/story/1102954/google-tax-investigation-urged-by-committee independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/we-pay-6m-tax-on-26bn-uk-profits-but-thats-ok-because-we-help-startups-google-boss- eric-schmidt-under-fire-over-comments-on-corporate-tax-8582605.html wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/22/ed-milliband-google-tax bbc.co co kinvricle357292/Google-boss-faces-paying-UK-tax-internet-giant-hires-pal-Prince-William-help-luxury-house- -22936684 hunt.html bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359 dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185427/How-Google-avoided-paying-218m-tax-Internet-giants-cash-saving-deal-2-6bn-UK-earnings. html independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/we-pay-6m-tax-on-26bn-uk- eric-schmidt-under-fire-over-comments-on-corporate-tax-8582605.html -but-thats-ok-because-we-help-startups- g-data theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/may/13/welfare-fraud-error-universal-credit theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/13/nurses-nhs-job-cuts-standards nhscareers.nhs.uk/working-in-the-nhs/pay-and-benefits/agenda-for-change-pay-rates/ economist.com/news/britain/21580184-better-ways-cut-states-justice-bill-what-price-justice theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jun/04/higher-education-participation-data-analysis theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/30/uk-university-applications-drop-ucas kriswilson.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/limbus-infantium-artist-book-project/rolled-scroll/ telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10212763/Britains-defence-cuts-are-of-critical-concern-to-special-relationship.html theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/02/police-forces-cut-5800-officers