jonc

...except, unlike foreign firms like Starbucks, Amazon and Google which have been lambasted by the media, a British firm doing the same goes largely unreported. Rolls Royce, despite making a pre-tax profit of £1.4bn, paid absolutely no corporation tax last year and neither did it the year before. I know tax avoidance is a real bugbear for some on here so how come Rolls Royce allowed to get away with it?

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Well I for one am boycotting them. I'm not going to buy ANY Rolls-Royces until they start paying tax

Ant

I've cancelled my phantom since finding out about this

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

If we're talking about Rolls Royce, the British company, surely this has nothing to do with car manufacturing?

jonc

Exactly, you'd have to sell a lot of Phantoms to make $1.4bn profit a year!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-21661506

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Fair point - I'll boycot buying any private jets with their engines then!

RA Dunk

Yup, and the ******* tax man will chase us plebs from John O'Groats to Lands End for a measly fiver while these massive companies get away scot free, sheer crazy!

ScoobyWon't

Why not play the same game? Get yourself a good accountant and minimise your tax.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Easy to say, but in practice these megabucks dodges used by big corporations only work because of out-of-date cross-border tax rules, meaning they're out of reach for anyone without a multinational presence.

cster

Plus you then don't have to moan about the way the government is wasting your tax - bonus!

Ray T

But They Are Paying Something, National Insurance For Every One The Employ In The UK, And Don't Forget They Are Actually Making A Real Product Not A Cup Of Coffee!

Graz

Project I'm working on is being managed out of Switzerland, not saying who I work for though

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

So you're advocating a 0% corporate tax rate?

BlkKnight

They also have huge VAT liabilities every quarter too.

RA Dunk

Funny enough due to most of my work coming from agencies I'm on the brink of setting up as a limited company..

jonc

Well at least Starbucks "volunteered" to pay the £8m to the Treasury, though the plebs that protested inside and outside of Starbucks probably don't realise they're a franchise and so affected the business of the staff at that particular branch who do pay their taxes fairly.

However, I don't see reports of the same plebs protesting in Derby outside RR HQ.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

If this is Rolls Royce engines - the aerospace division, I Believe most of their sales are exports to large Aircraft companies like Quantus/Airbus and they will still pay lots of tax, just not to the UK. At least they employ plenty of people and will be paying into the pot that way, as well as actually still producing something decent from the UK.

Its not that long ago I recall they paid a £100m fine for the grounding of some aircraft due to an engine safety issue. things like that will eat into your tax bill nicely. LOL

No arguments from me that it seems odd that they pay NO Tax, but its unlikely to be as cut and dried as Joe Bloggs on the dole will like to make out.

warrenm2

"No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow, and quite rightly, to take every advantage which is open to it under the Taxing Statutes for the purposes of depleting the taxpayer's pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue"

Lord Clyde

Nuff said...

BlkKnight

+1.

Emphasis on Honestly.

mrtheedge2u2

Shall we create lots of threads about companies not breaking the law????........The words 'tax avoidance' are used liked they are a crime. Not a crime at all, just smart accounting and knowledge of tax laws.

madscoob

iTrader: (3)

nestle by any chance lol, they don't pay a penny uk tax either. and in another 20 or so years will of raped the yanks of water from the great lakes

Devildog

This ^^^

RR will contribute significantly to the UK economy, notwithstanding that the group is not apparently contributing to the Treasury by way of corporation tax. As do Amazon, Starbucks and all.

PeteBrant

Precisely. It is a completely anti competitive practice. Amazon can do it. But can the independent book store? Of course not.

What is required is a tax on internal sales or transfers. It would stop EU countries being used as "manufacturing centres" and the sale being counted as outside the EU because the company has done an internal sale to the sales company in Switzerland.