Caffé Nero dodge tax

Caffé Nero and Starbucks are two large tax-dodging coffee chains serving undrinkable coffee.

Caffè Nero dodge tax as does Starbucks.

Caffè Nero dodge tax through a complex network of companies, ultimately owned by a Vulture Capitalist holding company based in Luxembourg.

Debt was used to acquire the company, which is then loaded onto the company, unable to  service the debt let alone pay it off, Caffè Nero is a zombie company.

Were Caffè Nero to file for bankrutcy, it would be another BHS.

This tax-dodging we all pay for with fewer police on our streets, the terrible scenes we have seen over the winter in our A&E departments in hospitals, cuts to social services, mass library closures, cuts to social benefits.

For the independent coffee shop, it is unfair competition, as they pay their taxes.

Big corporations dominate too many areas of our lives. They destroy the character of our town centres losing our sense of place. When they go under, we are left with devastated town centres which never recover.

They drain money out of our local economies. Spend a tenner in a corporate chain and that is a tenner drained straight out of the local economy, less a tiny trickle down to low paid temporary zero hours staff.

Spend a tenner in a local indie business and that tenner is retained and recycled within the local economy. There is also a local multiplier. For every pound you spend it is as though more than a pound has been spent, as the local business will spend it in the local economy. The coffee shop will be ordering cakes from a local bakery.

And the clincher, the local indie coffee shop serves better coffee.

Yesterday Google announced its UK tax bill. Frankly it’s an insult. pic.twitter.com/H0SMQVcziL

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) March 29, 2018

Because of the pressure we've all put on them, Google are paying more tax than ever before. But the total value of Google's sales in the UK is about £5.7bn a year. They are cooking the books to dodge tax. We need to keep the pressure up. https://t.co/JryvoH3fww

— UK Uncut (@UKuncut) March 28, 2018

Acquisition of Harris + Hoole by Caffè Nero has resulted in low staffing levels, leading to poor service, many good staff have left, the coffee once sourced from Union Hand-Roasted is now roasted by Caffè Nero, death by a thousand cuts.

One reason for the acquisition of this loss making chain may have been to offset tax.

I suggest for next issue of Caffeine that UK Uncut are invited to contribute a feature on tax dodging by Starbucks and Caffè Nero.

• Here’s how Caffe Nero made £2bn in sales but didn’t pay a penny in corporation tax
• Caffè Nero sold £288m of lattes last year… but did not pay a bean in tax: Coffee chain is branded ‘parasitic’ as it claims loss

Caffè Nero dodge tax

Caffè Nero has joined the growing list of tax dodgers, which includes Starbucks.

Coffee shop chain Caffè Nero paid no corporation tax in the UK last year, despite ringing up profits of £25.5m.

Companies House filings show turnover at Caffè Nero grew 6.7 per cent to £257.6m as it opened 31 stores over the year.

Caffè Nero has not paid UK corporation tax since 2007 and came under criticism last year for not paying corporation tax in 2015 on profits of £23.6m.

Starbucks has also faced backlash in the past over alleged tax avoidance, but has since changed the structure of its company and paid an £8.1m UK corporation tax bill in 2015.

It is unfortunate Caffè Nero now own Harris + Hoole – Tolley, Tolley and Tolley having sold the staff down the river. They did the same to Taylor St Barista staff when they closed the coffee shop in Brighton.

In both cases, these excellent coffee shops, especially Taylor St Barista in Brighton and Harris + Hoole in Guildford, could have been made available to their staff and customers to run as open coops, but that would not have satisfied the greed of Tolley, Tolley and Tolley.

The solution is simple, avoid disgusting coffee in Costa, tax dodging Starbucks and Caffè Nero and support local indie coffee shops.

• Take back coffee culture
• Big Business coffee chains
• Taylor St Baristas Brighton closed
• Caffe Nero paid no corporation tax last year, despite £25.5m profit