Jason Bourne Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 But I doubt even Miliband in pursuit of his socialist utopia would rescind all licenses. So why are so worried about it all then? It's not like Miliband would do what Jesus did to the moneylenders in the temple, is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expat owl Posted November 18, 2013 Author Share Posted November 18, 2013 The Treasury/BofE could do loads of things to influence the behaviour of the banks. In practical terms banks need to operate here. There is hundreds of billions of pounds of government spend, tens of millions of retail customers and millions of businesses, trillions of transactions every year. People are seriously trying to say the banks would up sticks and try and operate all that from foreign bases, without paying tax here either? Idiots. They don't necessarily need to up sticks. They simply need to redesignate where their Head Office is situated. Nothing changes as far as branches, etc are concerned but corp tax, etc will be paid in the country of domicile. HSBC did it a few years ago when they moved their HO to Canary Wharf. They could just as easily move it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthedog Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 So why are so worried about it all then? It's not like Miliband would do what Jesus did to the moneylenders in the temple, is it? Because a bank based overseas would not be paying tax in the UK, thus Miliband would not be able to tax them more heavily to pay for his stupid ideas. Do keep up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Bourne Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 They don't necessarily need to up sticks. They simply need to redesignate where their Head Office is situated. Nothing changes as far as branches, etc are concerned but corp tax, etc will be paid in the country of domicile. HSBC did it a few years ago when they moved their HO to Canary Wharf. They could just as easily move it again. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation? The World's Local Bank? I thought they already were based in the Far East Anybody remember this advert? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthedog Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 They don't necessarily need to up sticks. They simply need to redesignate where their Head Office is situated. Nothing changes as far as branches, etc are concerned but corp tax, etc will be paid in the country of domicile. HSBC did it a few years ago when they moved their HO to Canary Wharf. They could just as easily move it again. Precisely. They've already fired a couple of warning shots by moving their Chairman's office back to HK. ---------- Post added 18-11-2013 at 17:48 ---------- The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation? I thought they already were based in the Far East Anybody remember this advert? Headquartered in London. And no longer the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation - just plain old HSBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 On a related front I see that Mr Milliband wants children into schools between 8am and 6pm - breakfast till past tea time, because this will help working parents, help business or help parents get into paid employment. Already in place in any good or half decent school - breakfast clubs from 8am and after school clubs / homework clubs until 5 or 5.30. But no doubt he'll take credit for something which has existed for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expat owl Posted November 18, 2013 Author Share Posted November 18, 2013 The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation? The World's Local Bank? I thought they already were based in the Far East Anybody remember this advert? They were founded in Hong Kong and still have a substantial presence in Asia. However, they moved their HO to Canary Wharf around 2001 ( I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 They don't necessarily need to up sticks. They simply need to redesignate where their Head Office is situated. Nothing changes as far as branches, etc are concerned but corp tax, etc will be paid in the country of domicile. HSBC did it a few years ago when they moved their HO to Canary Wharf. They could just as easily move it again. Then the government could revoke their UK licence, nationalise the UK portions of the bank and transfer the licence and UK portions of the bank to another bank that does want to have a base here. Give up on the idea that the banks can just up sticks and leave us with no banking sector. The most realistic outcome is the more risky portions of banks re-basing overseas. But IMO that is desirable. I'm not happy that my taxes and the taxes of my children and perhaps grandchildren too are used as collateral for risk taking in the City. Are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expat owl Posted November 18, 2013 Author Share Posted November 18, 2013 Then the government could revoke their UK licence, nationalise the UK portions of the bank and transfer the licence and UK portions of the bank to another bank that does want to have a base here. Give up on the idea that the banks can just up sticks and leave us with no banking sector. The most realistic outcome is the more risky portions of banks re-basing overseas. But IMO that is desirable. I'm not happy that my taxes and the taxes of my children and perhaps grandchildren too are used as collateral for risk taking in the City. Are you? I believe that all UK banks have a licence allocated to a UK entity. Therefore any bank can move it's HO and thereby remove the need to pay corporation tax on it's full profits. If they did this then they would only pay tax on UK profits via the entity registered in the UK and it would be very difficult to revoke a licence. We've already seen that banks who were trading, in effect, insolvently (RBS) didn't get their licence revoked. All banks are made up of individual country entities that roll up to one HO company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Bourne Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 And no longer the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation - just plain old HSBC. Oh, many Sheffielders still refer to them (fondly) as Midland. ---------- Post added 18-11-2013 at 18:01 ---------- Precisely. They've already fired a couple of warning shots by moving their Chairman's office back to HK. And the UK public could barely contain its apathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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