Tax-paying alternatives to Amazon

cepheus

Once you've decided not to shop with Amazon you'll need to know which companies do pay tax. Otherwise you could simply end up supporting another tax dodging company.

We found five well known High Street shops that appear to be paying a fairer amount of tax.

Debenhams - Paid 22% tax on its profits for 2012.
Debenhams online offers everything from fashion to furniture.

John Lewis - Paid 35% tax on its profits for 2012.
John Lewis online offers virtually everything that's available on Amazon with the exception of books.

Lush – Paid 42% tax on its profits for 2011.
Lush online offers an extensive range of handmade cosmetics.

Marks and Spencer – Paid 27% tax on its profits for 2012.
Marks and Spencer online offers everything from frocks to food.

Next – Paid 26% tax on its profits for 2012.
Next online offers everything from evening wear to electricals.


http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/boycottamazon/amazonshoppingalternatives.aspx

robrooo

so, these are the 5 companies in the UK that actually pay tax!
I expect they will get a visit from one of the big 4 tax consultancies before the end of the tax year offering tax efficiency advice ;~

The_Green_Hornet

Unfortunately the state wastes a lot of the tax it already collects so why anyone would volunteer to pay anything more than they are legally obliged to is beyond me.

cepheus

Yes wasted in subsidising photovoltaics for middle and upper class professionals to make a private profit. Ethical and green my @rse. This board is composed of opportunists.

dm827430

amazon (uk) isnt really a british company. amazon EU is based in luxembourg. amzaon (uk) is a warehouse that ships goods. I dont know any shipping warehouses that return millions in profit.
Saying that, its not moral.

toomsie

If business forced you to buy its products that would be be considered theft. But that is what the government does through taxes. It has no intensive to reduce its costs/improve its products as it is a monopoly.

What Amazon are doing is not only legal but also moral. But you would need to have an appreciation of Austrian School Of Economics to see.

cepheus

Most governments are accountable to the electorate. The owners of companies in contrast are at best only accountable to a minority of people who care about profits without any regard to the wider effect of that business on society. It's unlikely that most consumers understand the wider implications anyway. Even more worryingly business owners fund political parties.

The Austrian school is a speculative pseudo-economic doctrine for selfish individuals. People who live in countries with higher rates of taxation have an overall better quality of life.

toomsie

cepheus wrote: »

Most governments are accountable to the electorate. The owners of companies in contrast are at best only accountable to a minority of people who care about profits without any regard to the wider effect of that business on society.

Consumers vote with their pockets. If a business provides insufficient goods and services, I will go elseware to one that does. It is that constant pressure of competition to provide better. If my workplace environment suck, I will change jobs.

cepheus wrote: »

. It's unlikely that most consumers understand the wider implications anyway. .

I don't understand how a Iphone works but I know that they are good, and do many tasks such as email much faster then my PC at home. I believe consumers are good at making good choices.

The quality of life is good in high tax economies is not the result of the taxes but a result of government upping taxes where ever there is wealth flowing like parasites. The richer a country is the more percentage government will tax.

google "cause and effect fallacy "

cepheus

Some economists compare the free market to the evolutionary struggle in nature, survival of the fittest etc. It isn't a bad analogy, efficient organisations can evolve which are well suited to the prevailing environment. However, it takes many dead ends and ages to achieve an efficient organisation, there are many dodo's along the way in spite of their absurdity.

The market doesn't operate in a state of complete information and rapid change. Consumers are lazy, conservative, and highly susceptible to manipulation through advertising. They rarely buy things in their own interest. Most products are chosen due to psychological pressures not rational choice. It's sometimes a con trick to get them to buy something they probably don't need.

toomsie

cepheus wrote: »

Consumers are lazy, conservative, and highly susceptible to manipulation through advertising. They rarely buy things in their own interest. Most products are chosen due to psychological pressures not rational choice. It's sometimes a con trick to get them to buy something they probably don't need.

To get the government to protect us is like getting a wolf to protect sheep. Consumers will be more careful with the most important goods and services need for survival.

cepheus

toomsie wrote: »

To get the government to protect us is like getting a wolf to protect sheep. Consumers will be more careful with the most important goods and services need for survival.

government is a problem when they have had strong interests in big business, but placing the role of profit motivated businesses in charge of our welfare is ludricous! Consumers are not in a position to understand their own best interest or hardly anyone would have chosen to smoke in the 1960s despite most of the health evidence being available!

e.g. The Independent Professor Simon Capewell, who served on the Health Secretary's Public Health Commission in opposition, accuses Mr Lansley of conniving with the food industry and ignoring scientific evidence on obesity.

And he warns that the Government's plan to "work together" with manufacturers to introduce voluntary cuts to fat, sugar and salt levels in food as like "putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lansley-has-caved-in-to-fastfood-industry-says-former-adviser-8082163.html