No increase in tax for workers

Social Care should not be paid for by increase in National Insurance, no increase in taxes on workers.

Why is this tax hike being reported as a given, media doing the job of the government, no exploration of alternatives.

It is also to set up a false dichotomy.

This is not the hard working young supporting the elderly.

Those in care homes with dementia, worked hard, paid their taxes, paid National Insurance, entered into a social contract, we pay our taxes and you look after us when we fall sick, when we get old.

Many who are now retired, worked hard, scrimped and saved to buy a house, built up savings. Why should it then be taken from them to fund social care? They could have lived in a council house, spent every night down at the pub, during the day in the betting shop, not a penny to their name, and all their social care would be paid for.

A large part of the social care budget goes to provide support for disabled, many of who are young, of working age.

And what the young forget, they too will be old one day, and if they stuff themselves with McShit, they will suffer diseases of old age far sooner, dementia, diabetes, heart problems. Type II diabetes used to be known as late onset diabetes, it is now affecting the young.

Social care should not be paid for with hike in taxes on workers, especially when alternatives exist.

• wealth tax
• windfall tax on Big Tech
• windfall tax on pandemic profiteers
• 5% revenue tax on Big Tech
• carbon tax
• plastic tax
• aviation fuel tax
• hike corporation tax
• hike beer tax
• hike excise duty on fuel
• tax on industrial agriculture
• address tax dodging

Revenue tax should also be levied on tax-dodging corporations eg Starbucks. Levied where the revenue is generated.

During the pandemic, the rich have considerable increased their wealth.

Serco was paid billions for a track and trace system that did not work.

Not a penny to greedy grasping tax-dodging conman Richard Branson

It beggars belief greedy grasping tax-dodging billionaire conman Richard Branson has his hand out for £500 million bailout of his ailing Virgin airline.

Not a penny to greedy grasping tax-dodging conman Richard Branson. #Virgin #tax #airlines @RishiSunak @johnmcdonnellMP https://t.co/Jf8HepY8yP

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) April 13, 2020

Taxpayers should not give him a penny.

£500 million is only from British taxpayer, Branson is also seeking £700 million from the Australian government to bailout Virgin Australia.

Recently he shifted a billion dollars from American Virgin Islands to British Virgin Islands.

A couple of years ago Branson sued NHS for millions. How many lives has that cost, how many ventilators for patients, protective equipment for front-line staff?

1330 Kings Cross to Edinburgh #VirginTrains #KingsCross #trains #fail #KingsX pic.twitter.com/Vu1MnyvZcD

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) December 14, 2016

Kings Cross to Edinburgh seats occupied or reserved. #VirginTrains @jeremycorbyn #trains #fail pic.twitter.com/S9QcDzPVBI

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) December 14, 2016

His running of the East Coast Mainline was a disaster. The rail franchise has now reverted back to public ownership, much to the relief of train crew and passengers.

In his call for a bailout Branson is backed by Airbus, which makes the planes, and Rolls-Royce, which makes the jet engines for the planes. He is also backed by Manchester Airport and Heathow Airport which wish to see a return to businesses as usual.

No bailout for airlines, no return to businesses as usual. We should not bailout out industries which are trashing the planet, which delivered covid-19 around the world.

Bailout people not airlines, bailout local indie businesses not global corporations, then fund a Green New Deal.  Any bailout should be of strategic sectors by acquiring a controlling stake.

The rottenness is at two levels, rottenness of billionaires who think the role of the taxpayer to bail them out, whilst calling for the strivers to return to work and make them more money, and the rottenness of the travel industry who think they can return to businesses as usual trashing the planet with the the help of the taxpayer.

Rich football clubs owned by billionaires, have laid off their workers, expected the taxpayer to pay 80% of salaries of the lowest paid, whilst overpaid footballers remain on full salary sitting on their arse doing nothing.

Philip Greed expects the taxpayer to bail out his ailing Arcadia group.

Mike Ashley tried to open Sports Direct during lockdown claiming it was an essential business.

Tim Martin forced sick workers into work at J D Wetherspoon by refusing to pay sick pay, encouraged drunks to go drinking at pubs, then when pubs forced to close, told his workers to go find another job and refused to pay suppliers (many of whom are small craft breweries).

Vulture capitalist owners of Waterstone’s forced their workers into work, refused to implement social distancing, refused to allow workers to wear face masks or gloves.

“We should use this as a moment to reflect on what transport methods we should prioritise when this crisis is over.” https://t.co/XPyGemUMZX

— Flight Free UK (@FlightFree2020) April 14, 2020

We face two global crisis, global pandemics spread by airlines and cruise ships and climate emergency.

We were told could not reach zero carbon by 2035, impossible, unrealistic within the time scale. We have shut down polluting industries overnight, we have seen what is possible, we hear bird song not traffic noise, our skies are free of aircraft, our streets traffic free, our cities pollution free. We cannot return to businesses as usual.

Covid-19 has jolted us into another now, a different trajectory. We have a glimpse of what is possible, what could be. We must now create and maintain another now, our future and that of the planet depends upon it.

• No bailout for airline industry
• Richard Branson facing backlash over plea for UK bailout of Virgin

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

How the tax man treats small businesses

There warts and all: the warts being my handwriting; all – being my generous donation to HMRC. I actually paid more tax than some companies owned by people that he might know quite well. — Jeremy Corbyn

"I paid more tax than some companies owned by people he might know quite well" @jeremycorbyn to @David_Cameron today https://t.co/iWlzSoyUmd

— UK Uncut (@UKuncut) April 13, 2016

Today we had infantile comments from Dodgy Dave Cameron relating to Jeremy Corbyn being fined £100 for late tax returns.

Easily done, many do.

Were Google fined for being six years late in paying their tax?

Cameron is totally out of touch with reality. He fails to comprehend  the anger of ordinary people and small businesses, who work hard and pay their taxes.

From The Independent

Following the Panama Papers scandal and Cameron’s subsequent bungled reaction, we saw hundreds protest outside Downing Street calling for the PM’s resignation. Meanwhile, the right-wing media attempted to bite back: the Metro ran a front-page headline on ‘Corbyn the tax dodger’ (referring to the fact that Corbyn paid a £100 fee for filing his tax return five days late, rather than avoiding any tax at all.) The Telegraph ran a story accusing Corbyn of receiving £3 million from the state, also known as his salary for his 33 years’ work as a Member of Parliament. The Sun even tried to suggest that the Labour leader had purposely failed to reveal earnings from a lecture he once delivered. The truth was a little different – as it turns out, Jeremy Corbyn actually paid more tax than he should have.

I mentioned this today to a restaurant owner.

He told me of how he was treated when he was late paying his tax. An oversight not an attempt not to pay.

A visit by an angry tax man, who wanted to strip the restaurant.

He wanted to take the paintings off the wall, which he assumed to be of value. They are, but do not belong to the restaurant, they are on loan.

Then he wanted to take the bottles of wine in a rack by the wall. Not wine, bottles of water. For show. No self-respecting restaurant would store wine where it was warm.

The tax man was asked, as there was a delay in paying the tax due to an oversight, why did he not send a reminder?

The response was he did not have to.

The tax man was told go and harass Starbucks.

Google ‘voluntarily’ pay £130 million ‘tax’

For small businesses and ordinary people, tax is compulsory, for tax dodging corporations like Vodafone, Starbucks, Facebook and Google, it is voluntary.

Google tax dodging

It’s unbelievable that big companies like Google ‘negotiate’ the amount of tax they pay. They should be told how much to pay, and made to pay up. Like everyone else. — UK Uncut

A smug George Osborne at Davos said Goggle only paying £130 million tax showed the success of his tax policies.

If an individual or a small business fail to pay tax, they will be prosecuted, forced to pay the tax owed. A small businesses may be forced into bankruptcy by the tax authorises to recover unpaid tax, may face a prison sentence.

One rule for ordinary people, small businesses another rule for the wealthy and global corporations.

From the viewpoint of George Osborne, it is a major success of his tax policy, aiding and abetting the rich and greedy corporations to dodge tax.

HMRC staff who aided and abetted, should be prosecuted for misconduct in public office, a criminal offence that attracts a prison sentence.

A six year investigation into the tax affairs of Google. How much did it cost, has it been published?

And the result, Google ‘voluntarily’ pay £130 million ‘tax’ for ten years of tax dodging.

For small businesses and ordinary people, tax is compulsory, for tax dodging corporations like Vodafone, Starbucks, Facebook and Google, it is voluntary.

• Google tax deal labelled ‘derisory’, as criticism grows

Millionaires support cuts to tax credits

Need Tax Credits to live?

Earlier in the week, we saw the crude attempt by David Cameron and George Osborne to bully the House of Lords to support their crass policy of withdrawing tax credits from the poorest workers, a lifeline if you are on poverty wages, badly backfire when the House of Lords voted no. We then had the unedifying spectacle of George Osborne throw his rattle out of the pram.

Of those who supported the proposals, eleven were millionaires.

The worst example was Andrew Lloyd-Webber. What sort of person flies all the way from New York, to vote to withdraw money from the poorest people?

Please boycott those companies who are linked to these millionaires.

No surprise that these are companies which pay poverty wages, dodge tax, and in the case of HSBC was money laundering for terrorists and Mexican drug cartels.

• Tax credits: Some of Britain’s most prominent millionaires among peers supporting cuts in House of Lords

Tax credits

Today David Cameron gave strongest hint yet that he intends to abolish tax credits, part of class warfare on the poor and demonstration of economic illiteracy.

• David Cameron speech: I’ll end welfare merry-go-round

David Cameron is correct, yes we should abolish tax credits, and it would go some way to reducing the welfare bill.

But the way to cut tax credit is to raise the minimum wage.

Tax credit is the taxpayer subsiding bad employers. Raise the minimum wage, pay people a living wage.

If the business is dependent upon paying people low wages, worker exploitation,  then it is not a viable business.

If increasing the minimum wage puts out of business McDonald’s, KFC, Sports Direct and other bad employers, then all well and good.

And shame on Trussell Trust who pay their employees so badly that they have to top up their wages with tax credits. I would expect better from a charity that provides food banks.

And shame on Labour, the usual hypocrisy. Howls that tax credit may be cut. Why not instead call for an increase in minimum wage to make tax credits redundant?

With the exception of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour wannabe leaders were absent from the anti-austerity rally on Saturday.

David Cameron says he wants to create a fairer society. He does this by cutting money to the poor and vulnerable.

There are 3 key drivers of opportunity – strong families, a first-rate education and a welfare system that encourages work.

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 22, 2015

David Cameron wishes to force people into low paid, mind numbing, temporary, part time, zero hours McJobs by cutting benefits and issuing sanctions that terminate benefits. In other words starve people into work. Or force them into work as unpaid slaves on workfare programmes.

Time to get tough on tax dodgers

When we hear, as we did during the boring election campaign, what do you wish to cut, if not hopsitals, then schools or libraries, or welfare payments, it simply is not true, not if everyone paid their fair share of tax.

It is time we got tough with the tax dodgers.

Russell Brand pays Lord Rothermere a visit

Daily Fail

We have heard a lot lately of an elite group of people known as non-doms, that is not domiciled in the UK, and so avoid tax. For anyone else, to avoid tax, you would have to live outside the UK, and you are limited to the amount of time you can live in the UK, in other words, you are a tax exile.

But, this group have a status conferred by Mad King George a couple of hundred years ago.

It was introduced at the time income tax was introduced to pay for foreign wars, and you guessed it, it was introduced in order that the rich and powerful could avoid tax. In this case for wealthy landowners who owned estates in the colonies.

You can inherit the status, you may have it because yoo claim you do not live here, because you have a burial plot overseas.

It is clearly unfair that a privileged group of people should avoid tax. And that this status should be abolished.

One such person is Lord Rothermere, who inherited the status from his father, also called Lord Rothermere (the title is heredity).

Lord Rothermere just happens to be the owner of the Daily Mail. Which no doubt explains that it is a little more than a coincident the front page headlines attacking the mere hint that non-dom status be abolished and the smears on Russell Brand.

• The Emperor’s New Clothes