Mega corporations and tax : Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:53 pm
According to Private Eye, Vodafone have lined up another scam. Basically, their Luxembourg branch, which claims turnover over 2X Luxembourg's GDP yet has never sold a phone there, has "recognised" that in the future it will suffer losses of dozens of billions. All the profits made in (for example) the UK can therefore apparently be used to offset these losses. And there is enough to ensure that Vodafone won't pay any UK tax for at least 25 years.
All this is seemingly perfectly legal, and judging by the way HMRC infamously did a deal with Vodafone previously over its tax bill, costing the UK taxpayer billions, we can apparently expect the old boys club to wish them good luck and slap them on the back in this latest wheeze. No doubt to be used as a template by the rest of the usual suspects.