Recently we have seen angry groups of ordinary people across the country occupy banks and Vodafone. These people have been disgusted by greedy bonuses and massive tax theft while they are being hit with all sorts of "austerity cuts" and are calling for real change in the way our society functions. It is not just the odd bank and Vodafone, they are all at it, the list reads like a "who's who" of the business world. There is Mr Green, government advisor and owner of BHS, which is conveniently registered in his wife's name and she happens to live in a tax haven, so that saves him a few million quid a year that should go to the tax man. Then we have Mr. Murdoch's News Corporation, he knows a few wee tricks on how to avoid, (fiddle) tax. Then there is Google, dodging tax the way a LibDem dodges manifesto promises. All across the globe big business is ripping off the public, and millionaire governments are giving a nod and a wink, as they belong to the same club.
The following is a leaflet drawn up to highlight another "friend" of the high street who has indulged in a nifty piece of accounting to avoid paying its fair share of tax.
DID you know that Boots The Chemist, that High Street shop with which we are all so familiar, is stealing £86 million a year from the British public thanks to a tax dodge?
That's right! As exposed recently on BBC radio's File on 4, it sneakily changed its HQ to a post office office box in Switzerland to avoid paying proper UK taxes and is now handing over only £14m a year instead of more than £100m.
Meanwhile, Boots boss Andy Hornby - the former chief of failed bank HBOS, walked away with more than £2m in his own pocket for his first nine months' work. It's the same picture everywhere - Big Business is being allowed to get away without paying its fair share of taxes that the rest of us have to cough up. And the Fat Cat bosses are laughing in our faces with their massive pay cheques and luxury lifestyles.
This comes at a time when the Tory/Lib Dem government is telling us the country is broke and weve all got to make sacrifices. Thousands of people will be losing their jobs. Vital public services will be cut. Those who cannot find work are to be punished with what amounts to slave labour or the threat of starvation.
Only the rich are to be allowed a proper education with the massive hike in student fees. The NHS is coming under attack from privatisation. We are all going to have to work until we drop dead because the state doesn't want to pay us the pension we've earned.
This is not a coincidence! What we are seeing is a deliberate attack on the majority of the population by greedy global Big Business and its friends in the deeply unpleasant Conservative and Lib Dem parties. We say we have to fight back! The students in London have shown us the way - we have to make it quite clear to the ruling elite that we will not put up with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY from Boots or any other Fat Cat criminals!
JOIN THE RESISTANCE!!
I would take issue with the statement that Boots "is stealing £86 million a year from the British public". The British public are freely giving boots money in exchange for goods, Boots are refusing to hand that money over to the government.
ReplyDeleteBoots are not stealing, they're keeping what is theirs.
The government are not the people.
The government steals money from the British public every pay-day.
Fight the government theft.
At this point in time we have a system whereby everyone who earns money in society is expected to pay their fair share of taxes to provide the services and facilities that will help to make it a civilized society, in which we care for those less fortunate in that society. The ordinary people are taxed at source, which is collected with the help of the employer, who in turn sidesteps their part of the paying arrangement, leaving the ordinary individual to carry the burden at the same time as the government is dismantling the welfare system. A system, though not perfect, which goes some way to help to create that civilized society. Of course if you don't believe in any form of mutual aid this will not make any sense to you. Though I presume that you went to some sort of school, you either paid for your education, which the vast majority of ordinary people cannot afford, or you went to free public school, paid for by tax payers money. I wonder if that education has ever lead you to use one of our many free libraries. I am not advocating the support of the state, but for a sense of mutual aid within society.
ReplyDelete