The Town that Took on the Taxman

[*_ash_*]

I can't find a thread for it.

 

Did anyone watch this on BBC2?

 

Link

 

I've just read a Telegraph report which slates it. I admit the asking for a Sandwich or a coffee at the HQs was a bit 'BBC-type-sillyish', but I thought the rest was quite good.

[Gamston]

I fell asleep during the program . I think it was a Dutch sandwich because Holland seems to be the easiest route for those companies wanting to pay less tax go through . The sandwich comprises UK, Holland and Isle Of Man . The Cayman Islands can be used instead of the Isle Of Man .

 

Maybe the program will be repeated .

[*_ash_*]

I fell asleep during the program . I think it was a Dutch sandwich because Holland seems to be the easiest route for those companies wanting to pay less tax go through . The sandwich comprises UK, Holland and Isle Of Man . The Cayman Islands can be used instead of the Isle Of Man .

 

Maybe the program will be repeated .

 

bold: I watched it in 2 sessions

 

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I thought it would have had a thread because there are plenty of people in here who complain about what the big companies are doing, especially in relation to 'loopholes' and the 'ease of how they should be closed'.

 

People say 'close the loopholes', and 'shut the doors' etc. I wondered how these 'loopholes' could be easily closed, like people in here say

 

From what it said, since the government (not sure if they mean this one or the last couple) closed one loophole, then companies just alter the the direction to another - the way I saw that is that by closing one loophole it just makes it slightly more expensive/complicated enough to stop smaller 'avoiders' being a viable option financially, but still easy for the big ones with a few more quid spent doing the avoiding. In other words, it does nothing to stop them.

 

People still shop at these places, so like I've said time and time again, why don't people choose other companies? The choice is there, so why keep blaming the government when it's in our own hands.

[Cyclone]

I read the article about it a while ago.

 

I'm waiting until I can group together with other small businesses and do the same thing.

 

What I'm not clear on, is how they get any of the profit back to the UK based owners of the businesses without incurring tax again...

[*_ash_*]

I read the article about it a while ago.

 

I'm waiting until I can group together with other small businesses and do the same thing.

 

What I'm not clear on, is how they get any of the profit back to the UK based owners of the businesses without incurring tax again...

 

This is something I wondered whilst watching it. You would need quite a large number of small businesses working together to achieve it (I suppose obvious by the actions in the programme), or at least a large tax amount I should say. It seems that with each loophole closure it would need more and more. Things have to be financed which this programme didn't show because presumably the programme contributed to the required travel costs and legal work etc.

 

 

I read the article about it a while ago.

 

I'm waiting until I can group together with other small businesses and do the same thing.

 

What I'm not clear on, is how they get any of the profit back to the UK based owners of the businesses without incurring tax again...

 

It only briefly mentioned this, but said that they would be paid via dividends. I'm not sure on the tax issues here (I though it was something like 6%). It's something I think you know more about. I was surprised that in an hour this didn't get mentioned much at all.

 

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It annoyed me that the old line that we read in here where they had the disgusted look when saying BigCompany pays only £x amount in tax when they have a turnover of £y. It seemed a bit dumbed down to me, perhaps because they had to fit it into an hour programme, I don't know.