Re: Ethics
>My father ran a business (director/part owner) which paid all of its corporation tax at the specified (headline) rate
Then you will know that (UK) Corporation tax is a voluntary tax, the business owner has a simple choice: Declare the surplus monies as a profit and either distribute to the staff through a recognised profit share scheme or pay corporation tax, alternatively spend the monies eg. buy a new CNC machine and avoid/don't pay corporation tax.
The big differences between your father's business and Amazon et al. are:
1. They are HQ'd outside of the UK.
2. They have non-UK resident directors.
3. They have operations and sales in other countries.
4. They have sufficiently large revenues to make it both feasible and worthwhile spending money on ways to save money.
5. All of the above enable and permit them (according to international tax law) to move monies between tax jurisdictions, using all the well established and accepted normal tax practises...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
