{"id":7775,"date":"2016-02-16T16:35:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7775"},"modified":"2016-02-17T17:06:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:06:52","slug":"the-chancer-lor-and-the-tax-avoiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7775","title":{"rendered":"The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Chancer-lor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and the tax avoiders"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Google tax scandal reached new levels of absurdity last week when the tech giant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president of European operations Matt Brittin told a parliamentary committee that he did not know how much he earned. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nLabour MP Meg Hillier highlighted growing public anger of the Google tax settlement<\/a> with the HMRC, amounting to only \u00c2\u0141130m over the past ten years, which is now being scrutinised by parliament.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what you get paid, Mr Brittin?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Hillier demanded in a parliamentary hearing after asking Brittin repeatedly what he earned each year. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bPerhaps you could give us a ballpark on what you get paid? Forget the share options, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your basic salary?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a salary,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he responded. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the figure but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll provide the figure privately, if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relevant to the committee to understand my salary.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nChancellor George Osborne has time and again said that he would get tough on tax avoidance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was a cornerstone of his budget in 2012, the same year he called the practice \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmorally repugnant\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut as details as to how Google got away with paying so little tax remain plunged in mystery, revelations on Sunday (February 14) show that Osborne is himself involved in the same \u00e2\u20ac\u0098morally repugnant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 practice he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s historically slammed.<\/p>\n

 
\nHis family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wallpaper business, Osborne & Little Group Ltd, purportedly has not paid any UK corporation tax in the last seven years.<\/p>\n

 
\nDividend pay outs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nA Sunday Times investigation<\/a> of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accounts revealed that, despite not paying corporation tax, the business shelled out \u00c2\u0141335,000 in dividend pay outs in 2015. Osborne, who owns 6,833 company shares, valued at more than \u00c2\u014170,000, received a \u00c2\u01411,230 dividend pay out, while his parents received \u00c2\u0141270,000.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe wallpaper company is headquartered in London and employs 195 people, who are overseen by a director earning more than \u00c2\u0141600,000. Revenue for 2015 totalled \u00c2\u014134m, while the business reported profits of only \u00c2\u0141722,000 which was split among directors.<\/p>\n

 
\nDespite this, the company has managed to dodge paying any corporation tax since 2008, partly because it rolled over losses from previous years and deferred tax payments, with one deferred \u00e2\u20ac\u015btax charge\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 amounting to \u00c2\u0141173,000. The firm also reported paying \u00c2\u01416,000 in tax overseas.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the first time that Osborne & Little, which was co-founded by Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father Peter, has been in the spotlight over tax avoidance.<\/p>\n

 
\nOnly last year, Channel 4 revealed<\/a> that the chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family firm, to which he is part heir, teamed up with a secretive offshore company in the British Virgin Islands to redevelop the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s former London headquarters into housing.<\/p>\n

 
\nOsborne & Little purportedly sold its site for just over 6m to the offshore company, called Nightingale Mews Inc., and then received planning permission for 45 flats and houses.<\/p>\n

 
\nAfter Nightingale Mews redeveloped the site, it is estimated that the offshore firm avoided \u00c2\u01412m in tax on its profits.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner lambasted the chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOsborne claimed that Google paying only a fraction of the tax they should as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098major success\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was an example of mates rates for the very wealthiest. Now we have this example \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an especially galling piece of news when only yesterday it was revealed that working people will continue to struggle on stagnant wages that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going up anytime soon.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTackling tax avoidance and evasion requires political will \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Google and other mega-companies that hide their profits in tax havens around the world only do it because they can get away with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOsborne could very easily take a more hard-line stance by joining other countries such as France which demand more in tax from companies who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve aimed to take advantage of global tax law loopholes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut how can we believe any future promises from the chancellor when he himself benefits from a system where the wealthiest can employ an army of accountants to sidestep contributing their fair share?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Google tax scandal reached new levels of absurdity last week when the tech giant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president of European operations Matt Brittin told a parliamentary committee that he did not know how much he earned.   Labour MP Meg Hillier highlighted growing public anger of the Google tax settlement with the HMRC, amounting to only \u00c2\u0141130m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Osborne and the tax avoidance mystery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7777,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions\/7777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}