A whip-round for Richard Branson?

My wish is that he had all these comments posted to him in CAPITAL LETTERS. These people need to hear from Real People.

Can't post a link but he's written a letter to his 70000 staff explaining reasons

Worth a read if you find it on google

I understand than RB himself is registered as "non dom" so doesn't pay regular tax here either. Also that Delta Airlines owns a slug of Virgin - so really not that much of a British link for Virgin at all.
I don't know what proportion of the company is owned as shares by the British public, but it is hard to think of subsidising a company that is part owned by someone who doesn't pay tax here and by a foreign company.

I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who believes this information is wrong.

To think, at one time he was a bit of a hero - building companies that were so different from the established , rather old fogey ones.

I’m just wondering if Richard Branson’s daughter has volunteered to work in the hospitals. She is a qualified doctor, but never actually bothered to work as such after her graduation. She was on my daughter’s course and he was at the graduation ceremony alongside ourselves.

This man is a parasite. He sued the NHS a few years ago didn't he? Now he wants more of taxpayers' money. He's an overly-privileged person and another one of those with a misplaced sense of entitlement. Even if he does mortgage his island he will still be coated in money, and frankly when I think of the people living in high rise apartments in big cities who don't have more than a few metres to walk around in, the idea that someone else, a human being with the same two arms and legs and inside organs, owns an island is sickening and immoral.

30 small potatoes 30 IS small potatoes

Victoria and David are well hard up maddyone they must be to imbibe anything quite as cheap as £2,000 bottle of wine! Of course if the vulgar duo high profile twosome didn't constantly put all this out into the public domain, we'd be none the wiser. The 21st birthday party for their eldest son cost something in the region of £100,000 plus

Marmite he may be, but I'm having to agree with Piers Morgan, it's the morality of it. 30 small potatoes compared the loathsome gurning, self promoting, island owning individual's empire. Nevertheless VB's staff furloughed out of the public purse for what is a failed vanity project seems ridiculous, particularly as previously the fashion label has had to have massive cash injections out of the Beckham's own money as it made year on year losses, so why not now

Would the world be a sadder place without her utterly stupid looking overpriced frocks rather unusual garments, although sorry of course for her designers and cutters etc., as I have no doubt it's their input that has given the label any kudos.

Well, almost 100% agreement on here. I agree with everyone who has said Branson shouldn’t get the money, nor should Victoria Beckham. What is it about these people that makes them so entitled?
Also agree about the smaller business owners who get paid cash in hand and don’t declare their full income. So now they’ll only be paid according to what they’ve declared. Good.

ExD Just a small point but the vast majority of us pay Taxes ALL of our lives - Not just Income Tax on our pensions, but Council Tax, VAT, petrol tax, Insurance Tax and excise taxes. There is tax on our savings (if any) Even the poorest, like me, are taxed on most things we buy except food.

Strange to think that the average minimum waged person is paying more Tax in this country than is Branson.

Well I offered to have a whip round with what we had in our pockets. Poor lad, maybe he could do what the rest of us do when cash runs out. That is, find a job. I'm sure the NHS or a nearby Care Home would snap him up as a Cleaner.

I heard somewhere that using the interest alone on his personal wealth, RB could afford to keep his airline staff fully paid till the end of 2020.

Having travelled on Virgin Atlantic I think I can safely say it wouldn’t be any loss to the travelling public?

branson needs whipping!he has taken and continues to take the michael! Didn't he lay off his workers at the start of the lockdown with no pay? A narcissistic smug tax dodger that somehow the rest of us are supposed to aspire to?!
No doubt he will get away with this, an absolute disgrace........

Refund on the wine? Didn't he get it from Virgin Wines? .

Yes, he's good at PR and pushing the 'decent bloke' image, but don't forget that he's the one who threatened to sue the NHS when he lost a private medicine contract, and took a cut from charitable donations.

Good posts Grandad and polnan.

If he is not paying UK tax then he should not be looking to us for help
He reminds me of Trump in his heyday
He effectively got a 20 year tax break in the US
I believe?

I've met Richard Branson when he gave a press conference at a large house years ago. I was working as a waitress for the catering team. He invited all the team into the room, poured us all a drink whatever we wanted, told us all to get a plate and help ourselves to the buffet. And at the end of the night gave us all a bottle of wine to take home and a plateful of food. We had cavier smoked salmon everything. He could have got a refund on the wine that was left but gave it to us. Really nice person. Feel sorry he's in financial trouble.

In normal circumstances, if Mr and Mrs Bloggs fall on hard times, most of their savings have to be spent before they can claim benefits, even when they have paid tax and NI all their lives. Why should it be different now? Give him £97 a week after he has spent all but £16k of his money, assuming he has enough contributions to qualify.

Whitewavemark2

now,, at last someone saying what I have been thinking. well sort of..
this clapping for the NHS (NHS WORKERS) yes, lovely morale boosting

but I am waiting to hear that they are all getting a good pay increase,, and the "management" taking a pay cut..

similarly, most of the low paid wage earners.. now they are real EARNERS! another rant of mine.... so many of the top people , described as being paid "earnings" do they like as heck, earn!

Richard Branson said on tv he went to his island cos he loves it, not to escape British taxes....

no sympathy...

Some years ago when british airways were in trouble and looking for help Richard Branson said the government should not help. He thought they should go bust as Virgin would take over the routes and the travelling public would not suffer. He also sued the government and received a very large payout.

I gather he has now said that his money is all tied up in his businesses and he doesn't have that much cash, also he moved to his island because he loves it there and not to avoid paying tax in UK (oh look a pig has just flown past my window)

Virgin Bank , he should ask them to bail him out.
I definitely don’t want my Tax going to help the idle rich Beckham & Co
It’s the small business that should be helped not the ones in Tax exile or avoidance payers of tax investing in off shore companies.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Branson offering to mortgage the island is just a PR stunt he is not likely to actually do it. The finances of the “Virgin” brand are highly complex with all sorts of holding companies in tax havens, you can be sure it will be the small investors and unsecured creditors that loose out.

He will most likely sacrifice Virgin Australia to save the rest, China would love to take that over at a knockdown price but maybe it will get absorbed into Qantas to save jobs. The £4.7bn would save Virgin Australia but he would still have a loss making airline.