CrickHowell playing the big guy tax game?

kabayiri

Yes (ish), according to a feature on BBC news. There is a program on tomorrow which covers the village of CrickHowell, and how they have been examining adopting the offshore tax practise used by such leviathans as Amazon; Starbucks et al.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-34800354

Now, they claim they are only doing this to highlight the issue.

My question is why?

Surely if small shops in these sort of villages and towns gang together, they can use innovative tax engineering to lower their profits? Some of our nicer touristy resorts trade a lot off their intellectual or marketing property.

What do you think? Would this allow the small retailers to compete with the big boys?

antrobus

kabayiri wrote: »

...My question is why?....

In the hope that people will watch the show?

kabayiri wrote: »

...What do you think? Would this allow the small retailers to compete with the big boys?

I doubt it. There is a reference to "following the business owners to the Isle of Man". Any UK owned business that traded through an IoM company would be caught by place of business and CFC rules.

kabayiri

antrobus wrote: »

...

I doubt it. There is a reference to "following the business owners to the Isle of Man". Any UK owned business that traded through an IoM company would be caught by place of business and CFC rules.

Yep. A few Umbrella Companies providing services for IT contractors folded when the schemes were exposed.

A few years ago, a company like BT was able to offset £200m against profit, due to Intellectual Property - specifically the output of peoples' innovative thoughts during meetings.

So why couldn't the independent traders utilise the investment in cultivating and maintaining the image of a historic market town like Skipton? Financial engineering can make a big difference to the bottom line.