Starbucks has announced that it has paid £5m in UK corporation tax, a move which follows the media ‘storm’ on this subject earlier this year, and represents its first tax payment since 2009.
For all the noise on the subject of corporate tax avoidance, including the discussion by G8 countries only last week, it is noticeable that other companies – such as Google and Amazon – have made no move to follow Starbucks in this way, and are content to abide by existing tax requirements until they are changed.
A Starbucks company spokeswoman is quoted as saying that they had listened to their customers and would pay another £5m later this year.
In the meantime, Starbucks is working to make its UK operations profitable, including rationalising and relocating and franchising stores. Of course, how ‘profitability’ is defined will continue to be the subject of debate: arrangements to pay royalties to its Dutch sister company, and to buy coffee beans through Switzerland, make it difficult to establish what exactly is ‘profit’.
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