Profits leaving the country.

Basgetti

If they’ve set up a business, they’ll be paying uk taxes. Unlike expats. They can spend their own money on whatever they wish.
Don’t understand what your problem with that is?

It is my experience that some people who come to live and work here have all sorts of dodgy tax and money scams going on.

They buy unregistered businesses from friends in cash and staff them with illegal immigrants.

Or they open up about six ghost companies with Companies House with one genuine. UK resident. Then don't supply tax returns or go bankrupt within a year .

Think take a ways, convenience stores, vape shops and barbers

Get a Housing Association flat and sublet for it years with visiting friends and more illegal workers.

A flat on.my estate is continually being used for the above activity and is now referred.to as the Middle Eastern Air B &B.. They are even provided with a car during their stay.

mum2three

There's no legal, moral or ethical reason why any business owner or employee here in the U.K, shouldn't, after taxes, spend their money in any way they choose.
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I'm sure you do. I'm sure that we all do.
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David49

FACTS......

In 2024 Amazon paid over £1Billion in direct taxes in the UK.

Taxes collected from employees and VAT brought this total to nearly £6BILLION!!

We should all be very grateful. I'm sure that Rachel Reeves is!!
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Facts

Amazon paid £18.7 million in corporation tax in 2024 on a revenue of £29 billion, it is the first Corporation Tax it's paid since 2020

I repeat VAT is a consumer tax not a business tax it's all claimed back

They pay an effective tax rate of less than 5%

David49

Moii

Maremia

Do you mean like Anazon and Bezos?

Hardly they don't live here, they are American companies.

Amazon Europe including UK, pays corporate tax in Luxembourg, in individual states it would pay Business Rates or equivalent on property, VAT is a consumer tax, businesses reclaim that. They would pay any employee contributions locally as well but not Corporation Tax.

I would like to see these companies paying more tax in UK, They make use of services, roads education and NHS for their staff. I don't know how true it is that staff on minimum wages pay more tax than the business owners living abroad,
I am at the time of life when I don't need many "things" so can afford to be particular which companies I use.

Bezos spends his obscene profits on space travel, Blue Origin is where the money goes and it's all tax deductible.

I can't think of a lot of projects more worthwhile, so I don't use Amazon.

M0nica

Our universities are dependent on the fees of foreign students. Many from the countries that migrant workers are sending their remittances to.

University fees cost foreign students £11,000 - £38,000 and can go as high as £70,000, plus, of course their living expenses. There are nearly 750,000 foreign students at British Universities.

A number of universities would close without, that is for sure.

One University has been censured because it was offering places to overseas students without the relevant entry qualifications and without the required English language test that is mandatory.
Also there is a roaring trade in MSc applications which give students 3 years to pass a one year course, followed by further years to remain, so it is back door immigration.

My beef is with international charity donations. 20% if you gift aid is coming from the treasury to go overseas with your donation; an unseen overseas aid.

There used to be a limit on sending carrying money out of the country, but it no longer applies

... 20% if you gift aid is coming from the treasury to go overseas with your donation; an unseen overseas aid

No, it isn't.

If I donate £100 to UNICEF, as I am a taxpayer, it claims an extra £25 in Gift Aid from the tax I pay.

Gift Aid is calculated on the grossed-up payment - formula £100 x 100/80 = £125.

In 2024, for every £1 raised, UNICEF spent 77p on aid for children. The remaining 23p was spent on fundraising and administration.

£125 x 77% = £96. That is what is spent on aid.

Same or similar percentages apply to other charities e.g. Oxfam (79%), Red Cross (77%), Water Aid (75%), RSPCA (81%).

The tax money claimed in Gift Aid is effectively paying for the fundraising and administration, so the donor knows that all or almost all of what they gave is spent to benefit the cause itself.

That wasn't the reason for the introduction of Gift Aid in 1990 but it is effectively what happens.

Charities registered overseas cannot claim UK Gift Aid.

ameliaharris45

On one hand, the business contributes to the UK by creating jobs, paying taxes, and generating economic activity, which supports growth. On the other hand, the money sent abroad is effectively leaving the UK economy, meaning it isn’t being spent or reinvested locally. However, this outflow is usually only a portion of what the business earns, and the initial economic benefits—like employment and services—often outweigh the loss

Jobs created for AI - drastically narrowing the jobs market for the students pouring out of the universities with shiny, new degrees only to find entry-level jobs have been taken over by technology.
Algorithyms etc, don't expect a salary. Graduates do.

mae13

ameliaharris45

On one hand, the business contributes to the UK by creating jobs, paying taxes, and generating economic activity, which supports growth. On the other hand, the money sent abroad is effectively leaving the UK economy, meaning it isn’t being spent or reinvested locally. However, this outflow is usually only a portion of what the business earns, and the initial economic benefits—like employment and services—often outweigh the loss

Jobs created for AI - drastically narrowing the jobs market for the students pouring out of the universities with shiny, new degrees only to find entry-level jobs have been taken over by technology.
Algorithyms etc, don't expect a salary. Graduates do.

People have been saying that new technology will reduce jobs ever since the industial revolution started in the 18th century.

When the first mechanical weaving euipment came in groups of workers known as Luddites destroyed them because they saw them as a threat to their jobs and incomes. In fact, it led to the development of the huge cotton mills we had in the Northwest, producing cotton and wook textiles far more cheaply than the old system did and for wages, which horrifyingly poor by our standards, were more than te handworkers could earn.

When computers first came in, it was thought that they would mean that there would be mass unemployment. There hasn't been better and better computers have opened up more and more opportunities for people. I tjink AI will be the same.

In every case, it has led to an expansion of jobs, perhaps not in the same industry, or in the same place, but it has opened up new opportunities.

Computers and their technology enable us to do much more with the same labour but the UK economy has not benefitted because most of the hardware and software has to be imported.
Since the advent of computers the UK has governments have struggled to balance the economy, borrowing more, devaluing sterling along the way.

That's the benefit of our service economy, nobody invests in long term growth it's all about short term fixes, then more next year.

I listened to a program on 4 where they were talking to a tech company developing quantum technology.
They are working with Japan who have invested money.
This is the next big leap in tech.
We are considered the best in the world in this.
One of the developers was asked how much our government had invested: zero!!
It was a very sad ending when this developer said that this wonderful new tech will go abroad without investment from our government as it has for the past 50 years. 😡

www.ukri.org/news/uk-japan-partnerships-advance-quantum-and-future-connectivity-tech/

There are quite a few health related uk companies here. Specsavers, BUPA etc not to mention those awful vacuum cleaners. That profit, which must be enormous, probably goes back to the UK I suppose. Swings and roundabouts. BUPA is very big.

Specsavers is a multinational company based in the tax haven of Guernsey, they are very good but don't pay much UK tax.
BUPA is an insurance company, based in London pay UK tax, its difficult to tell if that includes overseas income.

petra

I listened to a program on 4 where they were talking to a tech company developing quantum technology.
They are working with Japan who have invested money.
This is the next big leap in tech.
We are considered the best in the world in this.
One of the developers was asked how much our government had invested: zero!!
It was a very sad ending when this developer said that this wonderful new tech will go abroad without investment from our government as it has for the past 50 years. 😡

www.ukri.org/news/uk-japan-partnerships-advance-quantum-and-future-connectivity-tech/

This is the story of most UK R&D the ideas make money for overseas companies

mum2three

I know little about how finance works so, perhaps someone can explain something I'm curious about.
When someone comes to Britain and sets up a business but sends money back to their own country, what effect does that have on our economy?

If they employ people in this country, make goods and provide services that benefit people in this country., pay taxes etc, their effect on the nation's economy is positive.

The point is that they don't make very much at all in the UK, in many cases goods are ordered direct from China. There isn't even a retailer margin the only UK employment it provides is a few pence for the delivery driver.

Moii

Maremia

Do you mean like Anazon and Bezos?

Hardly they don't live here, they are American companies.

But whenever you buy something from Amazon, they make an international profit.

nanna8

There are quite a few health related uk companies here. Specsavers, BUPA etc not to mention those awful vacuum cleaners. That profit, which must be enormous, probably goes back to the UK I suppose. Swings and roundabouts. BUPA is very big.

not to mention those awful vacuum cleaners

I presume you mean Dyson.

In defence of James Dyson, he does invest a lot of money in biodiversity. He has invested millions in research and the technology to grow food sustainably while at the same time protecting and enhancing the environment.

Why he get so much bad press I don't know but some have never forgiven him for moving manufacturing to Singapore, although research and design etc are still located in the UK.

I wonder how many of his critics are happy to buy goods manufactured in China?