Following a successful weekend of demonstrations, the Daily Mail has joined the UK Uncut tax avoidance campaign. Alex Brummer writes today about the "exploitation of rules" by corporations.
Following a successful weekend of demonstrations against tax dodging, an unlikely source has joined the campaign against tax avoidance. The Daily Mail’s City Editor, Alex Brummer, writes today about the “exploitation of rules” by companies that lower their tax liabilities. It shows that the insurgent tax avoidance campaign can unite both right and left.
A weekend of action in 23 different towns and cities by UK Uncut resulted in the closure of several shops including Top Shop’s flagship Oxford Street store. The UK Uncut website reports:
“On Oxford Street, London, a sit-in forced the five-storey flagship Topshop store to close, before protesters moved onto close BHS, Vodafone, Boots, and Dorothy Perkins. In Brighton, 18 activists were arrested following the shut down of a Topshop, where protests super-glued themselves to the window.
“Vodafone and Topshops stores were closed in a further 6 cities – Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford Newcastle – with protests occuring in an additional 13 locations – Southampton, Stroud, Portsmouth, Lewisham, Reading, Wood Green, York, Liecester, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Cambridge and Edinburgh.”
City AM outlines this morning that Cadbury may be the next target for the protesters. UK Uncut find an unlikely ally in the form of the Daily Mail who cover Saturday’s protest in graphic detail. City Editor Alex Brummer draws attention to the group and highlights question marks over the tax residency plans of Kraft (which owns Cadbury) and the tax affairs of Sir Philip Green who owns Topshop. In an article titled ‘This plunder of our heritage‘, Brummer writes:
“Tax avoidance (organised by expensive teams of accountants) is perfectly legal. Yet it comes at the expense of millions of hard-working people who are not in a position to exploit such loopholes and have to bear the brunt of subsequent cuts in public services and increases in their own taxes…
“it is outrageous that the Government has failed to ensure big business shares the load, and has not demanded assurances from foreign buyers of major British firms (such as Kraft) about their future tax residency plans.
I”n the absence of proper official scrutiny of such important issues, a new pressure group called UK Uncut is campaigning against those companies it claims are escaping their tax liability to the Government. In its sights are conglomerates such as Kraft and Arcadia Group (which includes Topshop and BhS), owned by retail tycoon Sir Philip Green. What these protesters find particularly offensive is the fact that Green was chosen by David Cameron to help advise how the government machine could reduce expenditure.
You can follow the UK Uncut campaign on facebook and twitter.
31 Responses to “Daily Mail echoes UK Uncut campaign against tax avoidance”
Don Paskini
RT @wdjstraw: The #UKUncut campaign against tax avoidance could really heat up since it unites left and right together http://bit.ly/gf5KQ4
Matthew Taylor (MTPT)
Let’s not forget that DMGT was one of the first companies to try to go off-shore, and to this day it’s a case on the undergraduate European Law course (Freedom of Establishment). His employer’s affairs aside, Brunner’s playing a dangerous game – there are few (if any) major companies which don’t engage in “tax planning”, and he’s not going to be particularly popular if he starts feeding the opposition to this.
(Let’s be charitable and assume that anyone takes the Daily Mail’s business coverage seriously)
Jonathan Tench
RT @wdjstraw: The #UKUncut campaign against tax avoidance could really heat up since it unites left and right together http://bit.ly/gf5KQ4
Andy S
RT @wdjstraw: The #UKUncut campaign against tax avoidance could really heat up since it unites left and right together http://bit.ly/gf5KQ4
Tax The Fat Cats
RT @wdjstraw: The #UKUncut campaign against tax avoidance could really heat up since it unites left and right together http://bit.ly/gf5KQ4