Funds Insider - Opening the door to funds

Welcome to the Citywire Funds Insider Forums, where members share investment ideas and discuss everything to do with their money.

You'll need to log in or set up an account to start new discussions or reply to existing ones. See you inside!

Notification

Icon
Error

Increased taxation for the older generation?
philip gosling
Posted: 29 September 2021 09:06:30(UTC)

Joined: 06/01/2013(UTC)
Posts: 1,191

Thanks: 221 times
Was thanked: 1814 time(s) in 762 post(s)
Tim D;188135 wrote:
"Tax Justice UK" calling for a windfall tax on companies which "cashed in on Covid"... SMT in particular singled out! ........................
Other companies identified as case-studies reaping "Excess pandemic profits" are Asos, Tritax Big Box, Serco, Astrazeneca and Rio Tinto.


Comment

Surely first priority should be to reduce the thousands of ways international companies have of "artificially" reducing profits of their UK activities and transferring to Ireland, Malta , Cyprus , Netherlands etc small profits to get only a small amount of tax to pay on their "profits" in UK - never mind none EU Tax Havens.

I think it was a previous CEO of John Lewis that said he thought JL was one of the few large companies that did not try and get out of paying tax. Amazon charges US charges Amazon a royalty fee to make sure hardly any profits are made selling £billions worth of goods in UK. A"council tax " should be imposed on off shore "crooks" .

Amazon have a huge Warehouse Complex in Fife for which Scottish and UK Gov gave them millions in grants and excused them paying Council tax for many years (so it is said up here) meanwhile the UK Welfare system has to top up the workers' money to give them a living wage.
3 users thanked philip gosling for this post.
Tim D on 29/09/2021(UTC), Laura Sommer on 29/09/2021(UTC), huudi on 02/11/2021(UTC)
dd
Posted: 29 September 2021 09:13:32(UTC)

Joined: 15/09/2010(UTC)
Posts: 281

Thanks: 312 times
Was thanked: 94 time(s) in 62 post(s)
AstraZeneca?
1 user thanked dd for this post.
NoMoreKickingCans on 29/09/2021(UTC)
ANDREW FOSTER
Posted: 29 September 2021 09:22:32(UTC)

Joined: 23/07/2019(UTC)
Posts: 8,125

Thanks: 11371 times
Was thanked: 18235 time(s) in 5981 post(s)
philip gosling;188144 wrote:
Tim D;188135 wrote:
"Tax Justice UK" calling for a windfall tax on companies which "cashed in on Covid"... SMT in particular singled out! ........................
Other companies identified as case-studies reaping "Excess pandemic profits" are Asos, Tritax Big Box, Serco, Astrazeneca and Rio Tinto.


Comment

Surely first priority should be to reduce the thousands of ways international companies have of "artificially" reducing profits of their UK activities and transferring to Ireland, Malta , Cyprus , Netherlands etc small profits to get only a small amount of tax to pay on their "profits" in UK - never mind none EU Tax Havens.

I think it was a previous CEO of John Lewis that said he thought JL was one of the few large companies that did not try and get out of paying tax. Amazon charges US charges Amazon a royalty fee to make sure hardly any profits are made selling £billions worth of goods in UK. A"council tax " should be imposed on off shore "crooks" .



Where does BP actually generate it's profits? Shell? HSBC? Rolls-Royce? etc. are they "off-shore crooks" in the countries they operate? Then there are Nissan and Toyota cars in the UK.

If you are going to stop repatriation of profits then the law of unintended consequences will come knocking as countries like the USA retaliate in kind.

The way to tackle it is not sticking plasters but to make the UK a great place to pay your tax and employ people. Competition not protectionism.




2 users thanked ANDREW FOSTER for this post.
jeffian on 29/09/2021(UTC), Captain Slugwash on 29/09/2021(UTC)
Tim D
Posted: 29 September 2021 09:25:22(UTC)

Joined: 07/06/2017(UTC)
Posts: 8,883

Thanks: 33209 times
Was thanked: 24362 time(s) in 7229 post(s)
philip gosling;188144 wrote:
Surely first priority should be to reduce the thousands of ways international companies have of "artificially" reducing profits of their UK activities and transferring to Ireland, Malta , Cyprus , Netherlands etc small profits to get only a small amount of tax to pay on their "profits" in UK - never mind none EU Tax Havens...


I agree. The report seems to be rather putting it's faith in Biden's global minimum corporation tax to help with that:

Quote:
In July this year, over 130 countries agreed a new approach to taxing multinational companies that will go some way to tackling tax avoidance and will raise more money. While the deal doesn’t not go far enough, and lower income countries will barely benefit, it represents a clear step forward. Importantly, by reducing the benefits of moving profits offshore, it makes it easier for governments to raise corporation tax domestically.


I'm sceptical. By the time all the special interest groups have done with their lobbying and the new regime is riddled with loopholes and special rates, probably little will have changed. Although the politicians will all claim they've addressed their electorates' "something must be done!" concerns of course.

(The Rio Tinto case study in the report is telling... profits might be up, but quite how the UK is supposed to get its hands on "most of the $8.4 billion the company paid in taxes and royalties in 2020 were paid in ... Australia, Canada, Mongolia and Chile" isn't really made clear at all).
1 user thanked Tim D for this post.
ANDREW FOSTER on 29/09/2021(UTC)
Tim D
Posted: 29 September 2021 09:38:48(UTC)

Joined: 07/06/2017(UTC)
Posts: 8,883

Thanks: 33209 times
Was thanked: 24362 time(s) in 7229 post(s)
dd;188145 wrote:
AstraZeneca?


The report recognizes
Quote:
Unlike other vaccine manufacturers, the company has been widely praised for pledging to sell the vaccine “at cost”.

however then goes on to slate them for
Quote:
the company’s deal with Oxford university allows it to make as much as 20% on top of the cost of goods for manufacturing the jab which enables the company to “yield a fair return for the company because it would otherwise be producing the vaccine at a loss”. It has also been reported that lower-income countries like South Africa are paying several times more per dose than the European Union.

and takes issue with R&D tax breaks and their government-granted IP monopoly (ie patents) and reckons their profits are up 122% compared with pre-Covid years.

It does mention
Quote:
Other pharmaceutical companies based outside of the UK that have developed a covid vaccine, such as Pfizer, are on track to make even bigger profits this year.

but those aren't in scope.
1 user thanked Tim D for this post.
dd on 29/09/2021(UTC)
NoMoreKickingCans
Posted: 29 September 2021 10:42:46(UTC)

Joined: 26/02/2012(UTC)
Posts: 4,470

Thanks: 4548 times
Was thanked: 8771 time(s) in 3091 post(s)
Absolutely - the failure to stop the large corporates cleaning up tax free and using their paid clowns to ensure they reap mind bendingly large profits out of a mild pandemic - is the crime of our times. Unless something is done we will be a globe ruled by trillionaires in the WEF for their benefit.

I see no sign of anything being done. They are all on the payroll, one way or another.
1 user thanked NoMoreKickingCans for this post.
Laura Sommer on 29/09/2021(UTC)
Old Jock
Posted: 29 September 2021 12:21:47(UTC)

Joined: 04/06/2018(UTC)
Posts: 382

Thanks: 564 times
Was thanked: 1157 time(s) in 313 post(s)
If "tax justice UK" are going to tax all "windfall" profits, then presumably they will also partly insure any investor losses going forward?

Clearly these idiots have no understanding that equity returns are a highly uncertain payback for taking on the risk of it blowing up in your face. I doubt if any of them have ever invested a penny in the stock market.

Yes, and lets tax all pharma companies at 100% on any profits they make, but they still cover their huge losses on drug development failures. That will really incentivise them the next time there is a pandemic and the world needs saving.

And it would be great to go back to the days before Amazon, we can all just drive to town centres and traipse round shops all day looking for the small and rare item we actually need, then give up having wasted a day. The impact on our lives would be bearable, just for the comfort that no-one was making too much money out of one of the greatest ideas of the last 20 years.

Again, what an utter, utter bunch of complete cretins.
2 users thanked Old Jock for this post.
Captain Slugwash on 29/09/2021(UTC), john brace on 29/09/2021(UTC)
Old Jock
Posted: 29 September 2021 12:26:02(UTC)

Joined: 04/06/2018(UTC)
Posts: 382

Thanks: 564 times
Was thanked: 1157 time(s) in 313 post(s)
And it wasn't these companies which decided to do the lockdowns, it was clueless and irresponsible media like the BBC and spineless politicians, some of whom couldn't resist the temptation to encroach the state further into controlling our lives.
1 user thanked Old Jock for this post.
huudi on 29/09/2021(UTC)
huudi
Posted: 29 September 2021 14:25:54(UTC)

Joined: 11/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 266

dd;188145 wrote:
AstraZeneca?


Unlike Pfizer, Astra Zeneca claimed from the outset that their vaccine was non-profit making, they should be applauded. Certainly no excess profit showing in the accounts.
Tim D
Posted: 25 October 2021 23:39:44(UTC)

Joined: 07/06/2017(UTC)
Posts: 8,883

Thanks: 33209 times
Was thanked: 24362 time(s) in 7229 post(s)
Wealth taxes in the news again: https://www.theguardian....to-introduce-wealth-tax

(if anyone wants to join the signatories' appeal "There are many of us - people with wealth - who will support a more progressive system of taxation" you can do so at https://www.proudtopay.org/ )
2 users thanked Tim D for this post.
Maggie Chase on 26/10/2021(UTC), D Bergman on 26/10/2021(UTC)
85 Pages«Previous page4546474849Next page»
+ Reply to discussion

Markets

Other markets