“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Thus wrote Benjamin Franklin, noted political theorist, diplomat, scientist, inventor, publisher and humorist; some time between founding the USA and ending up on the $100 bill.
Taxation two centuries later
You may have heard about a government shutdown in the USA recently. This happens when there’s a ‘funding gap’ – an American euphemism for not having enough money to run its own government departments.
There’s two fundamental causes: firstly because past US governments have spent vastly more than they’ve raised in tax; secondly because they want to spend even more in the coming financial year.
One consequence of all this is that America’s national debt has now reached a level that’s so staggeringly high, there’s no simple way of visualising it, understanding it, or dealing with it.
Unless it’s by “shutting down the government”.
Which is a polite way of saying that government employees don’t get paid.
For weeks.
Oh, except for the President and the high-paid help.
Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Offshoring
With the US government unable pay even its own employees, let alone its bills and debt interest, you won’t be surprised to learn that the larger US corporations are getting pretty skilful at not paying too.
Tax accountants and lawyers earn a fortune helping them find ways of not paying tax – entirely legally.
Sometimes instead of avoiding paying tax (legal), they discover that they’ve not quite observed all of the finer points of the tax codes and statutes and are judged to be evading tax (illegal).
In 2013, a large accounting firm agreed to pay US prosecutors $123 Million to settle charges of “criminal tax avoidance”. This related to the tax affairs of just 200 people for five years.
In 2014, the so-called “Luxembourg Leaks”, indicated that the same accounting firm allegedly helped its clients to not pay tax by moving the tax liability to another country.
So instead of “offshoring” all the work, global companies are “offshoring” their tax bills and the examples above are leading to deeper as well as more widespread problems – social as well as financial. And all this Tax Evasion Avoidance and Off-shoring “TEA-Off” time leaves us … well … tee’d off.
Getting ‘Zucked’
Subtitled “Waking up to the Facebook catastrophe” the book “Zucked” was published this week by HarperCollins. It describes the activities that Facebook has allegedly regularly indulged in to ensure that we, the general public, remain riveted to our screens by its siren calls.
From which Facebook (the company rather than the App) earns quite a tidy sum thank you. Because all the time you’re using Facebook, you’re looking at a screen with other content on it as well.
And for all that lovely advertising money they earn in the UK, totalling to more than £1,300 million, Facebook in the UK pays just £16 million in tax.
Let’s put this in context for a moment, if any of us earned that much, our income tax bill would be £585 million. Way over 30 times what the Exchequer gets from Facebook.
The Sultans of Schmooze
When it comes to under-contributing to the UK Exchequer, Facebook isn’t alone.
At another American tech giant the CEO’s bonus for one year has been reported as more than the firm’s UK tax bill for an entire decade.
So it’s comforting to read that they’re “happy to pay more”. About as comforting as it is to discover that they’ve paid the French taxman over ten times what they paid ours.
And you don’t have to search hard to discover that another tech giant (one that’s done the most to disintermediate the high street) has had its UK tax bill halved while its profits tripled.
But if you’re expecting realistic levels of taxation any time soon …
… fear not!
When you can save that much in tax, you can afford some pretty impressive lobbying.
You can also take out full page adverts in national newspapers to make representations to us, the public, as to what you’re doing for us and how you’re helping us.
Not the last word …
These firms don’t pay for our roads, our schools or our pensions. They don’t pay our welfare, our healthcare or even their fair share.
And as for their lobbying, their advertising and their “fake news”?
It’s time that Franklin and others’ advice to the UK in the late 1700’s be sent back to the USA …
No representations without taxation.
