Re: Re Amazon
The fact that it is legal, Tim, has never been the issue. If it were illegal, people would hopefully be locked up. The point is that it is immoral and an abuse of all of us. If the companies that could afford to set up these arrangements paid the same effective percentage in tax as the companies that can't, the UK would perhaps not have food banks or a failing NHS.
To put that another way, some tax analysts have estimated this amount to be around the same as our deficit. i.e., we would not have a deficit if we had been getting the tax in. No deficit = no reduction in funding of services. And, perversely, no reduction in services would likely increase our GDP indirectly - healthier, happier people with a good safety net work better.
When they "legally" take this money overseas, we all suffer. As we suffer, our GDP goes down, then we suffer some more.
I hope this is on your concience as you defend this system, Tim.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
