Another Firm Flees UK Tax Burden
When the odd non-domiciled Labour Party donor threatens to leave the country because of Brown and Darling's taxes it is unfortunate. When a FTSE 100 corporate giant announces it is to re-register its head office outside the UK for tax reasons it is a disaster for UK plc.
According to London's City A.M. business paper, the £5 billion Shire Pharmaceuticals is going tore-domicile to Ireland. The company will re-register in Jersey and re-domicile in low tax Ireland, joining a growing number of firms who have relocated away from Britain for tax reasons. Insurance brokers Hiscox and Amlin went to Bermuda. Technology groups Electronic Arts and Yahoo! are off to Switzerland. The truth is the UK's excessive tax burden is driving high value and high tech businesses out of the country.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance's Matthew Elliott puts it succintly “This disastrous news confirms that Britain’s competitiveness has suffered a series of blows from misguided tax hikes.” Gordon is destroying the ability of the UK to compete globally.
UPDATE : Shire officially confirms story to the London Stock Exchange.
UPDATE II : Don't know how the Guardian will be reporting this, but they have re-located their property arm to the Caymans to avoid tax.
According to London's City A.M. business paper, the £5 billion Shire Pharmaceuticals is going tore-domicile to Ireland. The company will re-register in Jersey and re-domicile in low tax Ireland, joining a growing number of firms who have relocated away from Britain for tax reasons. Insurance brokers Hiscox and Amlin went to Bermuda. Technology groups Electronic Arts and Yahoo! are off to Switzerland. The truth is the UK's excessive tax burden is driving high value and high tech businesses out of the country.The TaxPayers’ Alliance's Matthew Elliott puts it succintly “This disastrous news confirms that Britain’s competitiveness has suffered a series of blows from misguided tax hikes.” Gordon is destroying the ability of the UK to compete globally.
UPDATE : Shire officially confirms story to the London Stock Exchange.
UPDATE II : Don't know how the Guardian will be reporting this, but they have re-located their property arm to the Caymans to avoid tax.
46 comments:
Just who are Brown and Co working for?
Ithink the last two years of this government will make the winter of discontent look mild. we are going to see a huge recession and the true scale of Browns incompetent handling of the economy will become clear
Dull point but Hiscox are underwriters, not brokers.
*returns to sad-sack insurance box*
I've been listening to David Cameron on Victoria Derbyshire and have been plunged into the depths of despair. His policies are all designed to attract voters like Sami Shakrabati and repel everyone else. Its clear that he won't do anything about deporting foreign criminals; he won't do anything about punishing people for their crimes; he won't reverse any immigration policies; he won't stand up for British troops. In fact he is the Labour Party under any other name. Gloom, despair, depression. The economy is the least of our problems. He's often accused of not understanding the lives of normal people. I can see now that that is true. Like Boris he is hellbent on driving the electorate into the arms of the BNP.
Yahoo! also relocating to Switzerland.
could it be because tescos terry lehea and sainsburys are getting all the tax relief.
still not heard anything about if FSA think tesco tax avoidance structure is kosher , even if it is legal .
but who made the laws eh
who made the laws indeed
i present before parliment "the supermarket wads of cash bill 2002"
This bill will allow the free movement of capital and phantom accountancy , to enable everyone to get rich (so it looks like a socialist success), whilst the company can shuffle money around and pay no tax and the SFA go and make paper aeroplanes out any written investigation requests.
Hiscox are an insurance co with a mk cap of about £1bn. The boss, Robert Hiscox, famously said that Lloyd's Names were like sheep, i.e. just there to be shorn. What a little charmer.
And the irony is that the Treasury coffers get a little lower every time one of these firms leave and more people lose their jobs.
Socialists don't understand even the most basic economic principles.
'Socialists don't understand even the most basic economic principles.'
WTF? Labour are more tory than the fucking tories FFS!
Could business taxes be any lower! or the loopholes any bigger! Why dont we just bend over and let big business fuck us up our collective arses... oh, wait a minute, thats exactly what weve been doing since Thatcher.
Doensnt seem to have done us much good though does it. What pro business "free" market cheerleaders seem to have failed to grasp is that its the lack of regulation of big business that has created the current economic shitstorm. Will you still be singing the virtues of corporate greed when the bank reposseses your house you Tory/Nulab twats?
anon @10.43 Fuck off back to your comprehensive and finish your Media Studies you ignorant twat. With regard to your question, "Could business taxes be any lower", the answer is obvioulsy "Yes", as you might have spotted if you had actually read Guido's item about low-tax regimes.
The current economic shitstorm is caused by having shit-for-brains like you out on the streets instead of in a dormitory where you belong. Cyclops created a boom by changing the inflation target to exclude taxes AND HOUSING COSTS, and by appointing doves to the MPC. He also over-spent, which means we can't get out of this by fiscal measures. Got it, fuck brain?
Companies individuals and money are in full flight all trying to get away from Gordon Brown.
I demolished a 100 year old cottage rather than repair it recently. The accountant pointed out that it would pull in a 3% pre tax rent, but a 40% Inheritance Tax Bill. Taking maintenace into account, it would take 50 years to pay the IHT Bill if interest free.
The good news is that the dumbo British electorate have finally got it judging by opinion polls - Labour destroy the economy.
Trouble is it will take another 20 years to repair the damage Brown has wreaked.
1 million people have left since 1997. Probably another million by 2012.....
The rest of the world understands that the quality of life and the environment depend on investment. Only in Britain does the government still intentionally destroy wealth.
The big ones are yet to come - watch Shell and BP .... and perhaps some of the banks may not have liked being bullied by Brown today.
Sorry to bring the thread back down too Webmong level but i'm back on the toilet.
As a G8 country, in 1987 under Thatcher our companies were buying up foreign companies. Under the great leadership of New Labour and Gordon Brown in 2007 onwards, UK companies are doing real bad or are seen as easy cash-cows from no government regulation, and they are now being bought by foreigners. Do we own anything of our own any more?
HSBC has already mooted the idea of change of domicile.
Brown's meeting with the banks is a photo-op. Nothing more.
Brown's statement 'working 24 hours a day on economy' is a long game position taking. The economy will show signs of an upturn around 2010 at which time he will claim credit for having single handedly overcome the forces of global meltdown.
McTwat is not so dumb when it comes to his own survival.
Europhile Tory traitors sell us out and waste our taxes!
A CAMPAIGN group has criticised Essex County Council for proposing to pay £27,500 to a “European and international officer”.
Mind you when the Leader of the Council ( Paul Hanningfield, a Life Peer, and a Conservative) can say:
“I have also been heavily involved in Europe and the recent expansion of the EU. I served as Chairman of the enlargement group on a body called the Committee of the Regions, which acts as the local government arm of the European parliament. “
it is hardly surprising that his council is wasting multiple thousands of pounds on such pointless positions.
Essex County Council says in a job advertisement that the successful candidate will report to “European programmes manager” and help “develop the county council’s engagement with Europe”.
the communists are deep inside `Daves` Tory's.
Common Purpose anyone? I believe most, if not all, of our local authorities/regions have someone working to promote the EU and ensure compliance with EU directives, eg
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/Localcouncils/index.htm
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=29253
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=28930
http://www.blbe.be/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=1867
I bet you can check any of the above sites and find your own local council has an eu rep on board. Whether it’s UK taxpayer or EU-funded is irrelevant really since our pockets are the original source of their wages.
It’s a very big machine to stop - the only way out may be to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act. In the meantime, I suggest everyone keeps a copy of this document handy -
http://www.bullen.demon.co.uk/eucitizenshipform.htm
The governing body of European football, revealed it had awarded the final of the 2010 Champions League, the sport's premier club competition, to Madrid rather than the new Wembley stadium because of UK taxation. Hamburg will stage the 2010 Uefa Cup final ahead of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/major-sports-events-threatened-by-plan-to-tax-foreign-players-802374.html
Rebrand with Miliband.
Guido - this isn't new. The only reason that FDI keeps increasing is because of restructuring and companies leaving the country.
See this from last year:
"Cross-border investment rose by 34.3 per cent over the previous year to $1.23 trillion (£634bn), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said. It is below the record $1.4 trillion seen in 2000. The US recovered its position as the largest single host country for FDI in the world, overtaking the UK, the top FDI recipient in 2005. The US took in $177bn compared with £169.8bn.
Britain's pre-eminence in 2005 was largely because of the financial restructuring of Royal Dutch Shell, which was included in the data as a Dutch acquisition. Stripping out $74bn related to Shell, the total came in at $91bn, almost double 2004's $56bn but just behind the US on $99bn."
@Anon 10.56
I see some people are still living in denial. Of course Brown is complicit in causing the shitstorm, but if you really think he has the ability to do this all by himself you are even thicker than your post suggests. I suppose in your twisted little world Brown also caused the US sub-prime crisis.
I think you need to take your pills and wake up to the fact that its the financial sector that really runs the global economy, and its the greed and incompetence of these twats (of which you may be one) that has led to this recession.
Gordon Brown inherited a veritable ECONOMIC GOLDEN GOOSE from the outgoing Tory regime ,so what did he do with it?
GORDON BROWN SHAGGED IT TO WITHIN AN INCH OF ITS LIFE THEN STRANGLED IT TO DEATH AND THEN PUT IT TRHOUGH THE OFFICE SHREDDER AND THEN BLAMED THE GOLDEN GOOSE FOR BETRAYING HIM!
Dear Man in a Shed,
I work for Shell. We have already left. Royal Dutch Shell is a UK PLC but has headquarters and tax domicile in the Hague, Netherlands.
Do wanker bankers ever learn lessons from history?
After Gordo Arsened the Gunners' hopes for everything this year,he has held "not crisis talks" with the leaders of Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Let's guess whose shares Guido Moneybags will be shorting???
it is true; our politicians are being bought off by the european project.
it is a highly dangerous state of affairs for our parliament. our parliament's occupants have mistaken themselves for its landlord and freeholder.
surely they are recklessly out of order.
"Doh! I hadn't thought of that!" says Mr Darling.
Idiot.
elsby's alive!
just spotted him on ian dale.....
come back gary we do miss your learned input.
@anon 10.43
what the pro business "free" market cheerleaders seem to have failed to grasp is that its the lack of regulation of big business that has created the current economic shitstorm
erm, not quite. First off, it is greed by the financiers which has done that, packaging up and selling bad debt as good in a high stakes game of pass-the-parcel. So long as they were making the fees it was fine until someone wondered what might be under the wrapping paper. Then things got interesting...
but it wasn't companies that actually made things that screwed it. We need them like never before.
second, regulation of big business is not synonymous with taxing them. You could have a very highly regulated industry that nevertheless did not pay much tax. Compliance tends to cost a lot, but you could always fund it through tax breaks. Different industries are regulated in different ways and to different extents. There is even a strong argument for seeing regulation and taxation as in competition, not harmony. After all, a deregulated marketplace might be attractive enough to attract a business to base itself in a higher-taxed country and vice versa.
Whether we should regulate more or less is a moot point. What is not moot is that we need business based here more than ever. We need them employing people and paying a certain amount of tax, and we need that so much that we should be prepared to lower their tax burdens in order to allow them to stay here. Because otherwise, the economy will go well and truly [even more] tits up [than it already has].
but i don't expect that anyone cares about any of this this, they just want to call each other a c**t.
"I think you need to take your pills and wake up to the fact that its the financial sector that really runs the global economy, and its the greed and incompetence of these twats (of which you may be one) that has led to this recession."
The reason we have this mess is because of credit creation by the banks. Why are they able to create so much credit and screw up the productive structure of the economy? Because they know central banks (government creations) will bail them out. Once again the state shows itself to be the problem.
Jonah strikes again.
He meets the banks and Morgan Stanley say:
Rating — HBOS Downgrade to Equal-weight
Price Targets
Barclays To 450p from 550p
RBS To 300p from 350p
HBOS To 535p from 715p
Lloyds TSB To 300p from 380p
Alliance & Leicester To 320p from 370p
Bradford & Bingley To 130p from 150p
HSBC To 700p from 740p
Standard Chartered Unchanged at 1920p
Gary's got a fight on his hands down at Dimensions, a small swimming pool in Stoke.
The Labour council want to shut it down to save £60K but Gary argues that they shouldn't be shutting such a useful local facility. It is useful - nice little cafe, splash pool, training pool for the kiddies. It serves a large number of near-by families - they don't have to drive to get there. Not really a serious swimming pool though, but great for getting started.
The snag is, if he were on the Labour council he would be obliged to vote for the Labour budget and that's who wants to close it. If he didn't vote that way, the party could suspend him. He has been asked why, if he is out of sympathy with the Labour party, he doesn't stand as an Independent. He has also been slyly offered to go to the BNP, although that is more tongue-in-cheek. He would not consider them for a moment - which makes his climb harder because the BNP might do well in the ward.
What ever else you want to say about Gary Elsby, he's not the one too scared to fight an election.
If only the ordinary taxpayer could follow suit.......
It's not only the tax issues but the Department of Health ripping up an agreement with the pharma industry on pricing that had a couple of years to run, creating uncertainty as to future profitability in the UK. Result is sharp cut in research and development in the UK by the industry. Most of the pharma manufacturing has gone abroad. It's probably only a matter of time before GSK and AstraZeneca follow suit and abandon the UK as their HQ. Another high tech industry on which the UK's future will no longer be built thanks to government mendacity, greed and incompetence.
Gordo looks likes hell on the BBC clip. Any more goss from the Snot-schanze?
dr. twat 11.19
The UK economy will be showing NO signs of recovery by 2010. On the contrary we wil be deep in deflationary recession after a highly destructive period of stagflation. This coming meltdown will hit the UK like a ton of bricks and will last years leaving living standards massively lower for most of us.
Generation P said
"David Cameron .... His policies are all designed to attract voters like Sami Shakrabati and repel everyone else... he won't do anything about punishing people for their crimes; he won't stand up for British troops. In fact he is the Labour Party under any other name."
Dave is a spineless carpetbagger ( IMHO
).
Europhile Tory traitors sell us out
said
"A CAMPAIGN group has criticised Essex County Council for proposing to pay £27,500 to a “European and international officer”.
The Tories already control most local authority seats and are thus responsible for much of the " Wherever " Euro Regional Agency/Commisariat gravy-train schmoozing.
Why would I vote for them on May 1st ?
Not A BNP supporter, just a natural Conservative who feels betrayed.
As for Shire leaving; just as well given all the muck medicines they are responsible for: turning your children into drug-crazed-soon-to-be-schoolpal-killing zombies.
Pensions destroyed, gold reserves thrown away, the country swimming in debt and future generations mortgaged up to the eyeballs because Brown's PFI schemes have been such a disaster. Over 100,000 going bust every year, taxes and inflation out of control. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have another two years of Brown's economic pogrom to go, and can only wonder what is yet to come. How much more financial destruction can one man wreak?
Alas, the blizzard of incompetence shows no signs of abating yet. Gordon Brown has played the economy like Les Dawson played the piano, while all the time the BBC was telling us how well he was performing. Those of us with a more discerning ear begged to differ. Fortunately, the majority of the electorate are not tone deaf, and Gordon is now recognised to be the cretin he always was. No ordinary cretin mind you, a special cretin. A cretin of the very, very highest order.
One can only speculate as to the horrors that are yet to come. Some of the negligence and mismanagement of his tenure may not be exposed until Gordon's party is out of office. I'll leave you with that happy thought.
O/T SORRY BUT I AM FUMING!
just seen the clip about brown re selling gold.......what planet does this turd live on?
LET ME MAKE IT CLEAR!!!
YOU pre-announced the sale -thus causing the price to tumble!!!!!
cretin!!!!!
Your advisors (think it was jp morgan) said shortly afterwards
'it was perfectly clear that they(brown and treasury)didn't understand the Gold market!!!!!!!!
luv a duck......
Economist 04.57pm
I agree. My wording was weak. Should have stated "Brown hoping for some evidence of recovery will then.............."
The example of Japan's 14 year deflation period should cause concern. BoJ/Govt gave away money for a decade post 87 crash and created a buuble of such magnitude that Australian Govt sold their Tokyo embassy and used funds to pay off debt. Imperial Palace grounds = value of California real estate. Greenspan fed the US consumer with cheap money and so created the asset price bubble that will take years to unwind.
I went to San Antonia in 91 to check out the real estate crash. Possible to buy condos for $20k and whole blocks for less than a $1m.
I think there is a good chance that UK will experience no growth for years.
Amazon.com
Slough office shut down - moved to Cork
Yahoo
Operation Yodel - move from London to Switzerland
Google - didnt even bother with Britain - set up their European Engineering HQ in Zurich.
Non-doms get ready to move to Switzerland
and heres even more:
Kraft foods : London to Zurich last year
Experian: new HQ in Dublin
Gallaher tobacco (makers of Camel) : moved to Geneva...
Shit is brown, and Brown is shit.
Happy negative equity to all you Tory/Zanulab tossers.
Fucking delicious!
JT - re Amazon, shame the Roma aren't big buyers of DVDs - Romani is widely spoken in Slough.
John Trenchard 6:43
Google also run their European admin/finance operation from Dublin.
Dr Twat: 5:54
Concur entirely, the UK economy will be shagged for at least a decade. And how the bleeding heart Diana worshipping classes will squeal as the pips are squeezed.
Please correct me on this if anyone can.I was taught that wealth is only really created by making things,growing crops,rearing livestock,mining etc,fishing and a few other unglamorous pursuits.All other activities depend on these.So what the hell does this country having abandoned most of these to play in a city casino economy do now?
Globalisation is just a new way the rich and powerful have discovered of reducing us to poverty and starvation.It is only the beginning.Rising food prices are a tax on all of us and an act of aggression against the nation.
Amlin and Hiscox are insurers not insurance brokers.
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