Corporate Tax Advoidance

Citizens are often frustrated by the apparent ability of the big corporations to dance rings about government tax collection using these methods that are unavailable to smaller businesses and individuals. For example, In the UK in 2010, HMRC waived a potential tax bill of £7bn from Vodafone. David Hartnett, the head of HMRC at the time, even later admitted that he might have made mistakes in some of his actions while settling potential high-yield tax disputes with multinational companies.

Also, Vodafone sold its stake in Verizon Wireless in 2013, to Verizon Communications in the USA. When it came to accounting for taxes, it claimed that a Netherlands Holding company owned the shares sold outside of UK tax jurisdiction and consequently paid no tax. This is all entirely legal, of course, and not a criticism of any corporation doing this, but the net effect of these kinds of deals on smaller businesses and citizens themselves is a bigger tax burden and an inability to compete fairly.

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