Amazon and tax.

DJ. I meant I wish I hadn't heard it. I feel powerless now. We are being shit on from a great height and there's nothing we can do.
I know you will say we have the vote, but I've lost faith in all of them.

Do you mean you wish you hadn't heard that, or that the company had not used an accountant who helped them fiddle their taxes?
I think it's better if we do hear these things, and the more often the better, so that people will wake up to what has been going on and get angry enough to try and do something about it.

On channel 4 news tonight. You couldn't make this up.
The company that own the buildings that the inland revenue use haven't paid any corporation tax.
They have recieved 2.7 billion pounds of tax payers money since 2001.
I wish I hadn't heard that.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/08/government-job-amazon-executive-power-government-tax-avoiding-corporations

The government is now giving a non-executive post to Doug Gurr, who was an Amazon executive.
The tax advisers they have include not a single person who wants tax fairness, but lots who work for accountants who have helped tax dodgers.
Is this right? Is it fair? Margaret Hodge doesn't think so.
Why should tax dodgers be rewarded?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/02/09/tax-avoidance-does-not-work-unless-youre-a-big-business-when-its-just-fine/

About the Dispatches programme.

You must watch it gillybob. I will be interested to see what comes out of it. HMRC refused to comment on it.
It just shows that the government has not changed its ideas at all. HMRC still goes after small fry, not the people who arrange these scams.
Greg Wise shows his footage to a tax lawyer. The numbers involved in these schemes are rather large. I do not see how all these accountants can get away with it now. There was one who told him that there were another 111 accountants just like him doing the same.
I expect HMRC to ask for a list. One of them also said that people who used to be in number 10 were involved.

I have the DGC on Mondays and Tuesdays so it's impossible for me to see anything in TV. I was planning on watching it on catch up Durhamjen although I could feel my blood boiling just watching the short preview. Not sure if my stress levels can take it.

Anyone else watching Dispatches?
Greg Wise video-ing people offering him ways to beat the taxman.

www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/dwp-post-amazon-chief-disgusting-margaret-hodge

Anybody else think this is just strange.
Since when did the DWP have directors?

Quite often I find Hive cheaper than Amazon would be for books.

Registered with Hive today and already spent quite a bit of dosh - hurrah. Thanks again.

Thanks for the links, DJ. Two super alternatives to Amazon. ?

Amazon is not acting illegally- but we all know that what they are doing is wrong and unfair, in so many ways- and contribute unfair competition killing book shops that are all disappearing fast. Knowing that, we could quickly solve the problem by a boycott- and I'm sure they'd get the message fast and act upon it- as Starbucks have done.

Condoning and partaking in their wrong-doing make us party to it.

Brilliant links DJ- thank you- really useful.

The Cadbury family must be so upset about this. A really wonderful Quaker family- with totally ethical business practices- seeing what Hershey is doing to the chocolate (palm oil, etc) and the non-paying of taxes- must be truly sad for them.

I boycott Amazon as well, mollie, and have done for over a year.
I buy books from a company called Hive.
www.hive.co.uk which supports your local bookshop or book related charity. The prices are cheaper than a book shop, you get postfree if your order is £10 or more, and a percentage of your order goes to your local bookshop. I ask them to give to Seven Stories, the National Children's Book Centre in Newcastle.
Michael Morpurgo has given Seven Stories his entire back catalogue.
They do other things, as well as books. Worth looking at.
Mind, my local bookshop is at Corbridge, so I will probably give to them in future, as they will not get lottery funding, and Corbridge has been flooded over the weekend. I do not know if the bookshop has been affected, but they will not be selling as many books for the foreseeable future.
I also order a lot from www.ethicalsuperstore.com this time of year.

That's worth knowing (re Starbucks)... shallow as I am, I could easily boycott Cadburys but would (bows head in shame) struggle to do the same with Amazon right now...perhaps I'm more typical than I like to admit.

As said above, France has voted for it; Britain could do so. However, most of the tax havens are British, so what would happen to the government's friends?
Legal or not, it's immoral. Lots of people say they are not buying Cadbury's this Christmas. As they say they make no profit here, it should not make any difference to them. The Starbucks boycott hurt them. They are actually paying more tax here than they did before the boycott.

I use, and like Amazon, but quite honestly, they are not doing anything ilegal at the moment regarding tax, it is up to the government to change tax laws if they want the extra money from these companies.

Trouble is, it seems to me that the politicians as individuals have vested interest in big business - many of them are shareholders or get support in some way, have friendships amongst the board member level and probably hold expectations for life after Parliament - so won't really chase after the corporations who dodge tax. But they'll happily squeeze the little guy ... Call me cynical but...

I don't use Amazon now and have found that the big stores are just as good for choice and delivery. And now Cadbury! The government needs to get a grip on this as we need the money.

I know, I'm sorry, didn't read it properly.

Mollie, link two posts above yours.

There was a report yesterday that Cadburys won't be paying a penny in Corporation Tax here despite making millions in profit. Perhaps we ought to boycott their chocolate over Christmas?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/12/06/france-votes-for-public-country-by-country-reporting/

France has voted for country-by-country reporting, so that tax is paid in the right place at the right time.
This country could easily follow if the will were there.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/12/06/three-ways-to-stop-the-cadburys-tax-abuse/

Now even the company that owns Cadbury's is trying to get away with not paying tax in this country.
Time the tax system was overhauled.
Anyone going to stop buying Cadbury's?