The £93bn handshake

Graham_Devon

Taxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year – a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK.

The total emerges from the first comprehensive account of what Britons give away to companies in grants, subsidies and tax breaks, published exclusively in the Guardian.

Many of the companies receiving the largest public grants over the past few years previously paid little or zero corporation tax, the analysis shows. They include some of the best-known names in Britain, such as Amazon, Ford and Nissan. The figures intensify the pressure on George Osborne, the chancellor, just as he puts the finishing touches to his budget. At the heart of Wednesday’s announcement will be his plans to cut £12bn more from the social welfare bill.

Anyone care to dissect this a little?

I'd imagine that a lot of that £93bn is only to be expected. But I'd also imagine that quite a bit of that £93bn really is unneccessary and rather a "bribe" to companies.

I was quite taken aback that the welsh assembly spent £3m building a road specifically for the Amazon distribution centre. I can see the theory that it's investment in jobs, but Amazon spends more than that per year on lawyers in order to evade tax and take employment law to the extreme.

So is this £93bn figure bad? Should something be done? Or is it a bit alarmist?

?http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/07/corporate-welfare-a-93bn-handshake

cells

maybe the researcher who plucked these numbers out of thin air might want to next time pick a smaller number that is believable rather than outright disposable for being silly

antrobus

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Anyone care to dissect this a little? ....

I'll give it a go.:)

Corporate tax benefits: £44bn Of the 93 major tax reliefs provided by the Treasury, 27 are aimed at business. The largest amount was spent allowing businesses to write off billions spent on plants, machinery and equipment among other items.

Allowing business to write off expenditure on capital is no more of a subsidy than allowing business to write off expenditure on anything else.

Government procurement from the private sector: £15bn

Government spending on buying things from the private sector is not a subsidy.

So £59 bn out of that £93bn is an entirely fictitious 'subsidy'.

Thrugelmir

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Anyone care to dissect this a little?

About the best the Guardian can come up with in response to the Tories attack on welfare today. If these companies weren't here. There'd be no jobs.

stator

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If these companies weren't here. There'd be no jobs.

Of course, because British companies are completely incapable of building things, we have to attract foreign investors by giving them huge tax breaks.

Generali

stator wrote: »

Of course, because British companies are completely incapable of building things, we have to attract foreign investors by giving them huge tax breaks.

Lots of the 'tax breaks' go to British companies.

kabayiri

Why is anyone remotely surprised by the relationship between big business and politics?

Did Fujitsu sponsor the corporate hospitality tent at the Conservative conference to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds for nothing but kindness?

If lobbying did not work they would not do it. Perhaps we could make it a bit more transparent but it won't stop.

shinkyshonky

kabayiri wrote: »

Why is anyone remotely surprised by the relationship between big business and politics?

Did Fujitsu sponsor the corporate hospitality tent at the Conservative conference to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds for nothing but kindness?

If lobbying did not work they would not do it. Perhaps we could make it a bit more transparent but it won't stop.

And that is why this country is f***ed,

Mistermeaner

shinkyshonky wrote: »

And that is why this country is f***ed,

Yes what a mess this country is in.

We should do like the Greeks, have a huge public sector. Little industry and just borrow money to pay for stuff.

Oh hold on.....

Mistermeaner

As pointed out above huge portions of this number are sensationalist crap.

The rest - so what? What is total government expenditure? What is the nett benefit to society of each £ spent on business vs £ spent on anything else? Short sighted fools will think this money straight into the pockets of 'business' (whatever that is) what then happens? Think it through

Thrugelmir

kabayiri wrote: »

Why is anyone remotely surprised by the relationship between big business and politics?

Isn't networking the way the world has always worked?