If only Mrs. Phillip Green's wife would pay her taxes in the UK

[EggFriedRice]

I have read about Mrs.Phillip Green's wife who lives in Monaco, she is also the owner of Topshop in the UK and has been paid the biggest ever dividend in UK history, over £1 billion pounds, now what I fail to understand is why does she not live in the UK where her businesse's are located? why does she choose to live as a tax exile? Does this not lead many people to believe that she is deliberately trying to avoid paying UK tax? Yes of course we are not stupid, I have destroyed my Topshop card & will never buy another item from Topshop again, I think that Mr. & Mrs. Green are hypocrites, end of

Pressuredrop - Well that IS what companies are for. I did go on to say why there are wider benefits to them doing that, which is why we want them to do it.

Aw...yeah,well then let all the Brits pay their (?)tax.
Let them live in Monaco.

no-one is paying their tax for them though, as Mrs G doesn't owe any UK tax, as she doesn't live here and isn't a UK citizen. Not sure where the "poor UK taxpayers are paying for her" argument comes in

if you object then simply don't spend any money in any of his shops - I don't. Easy!

Wiki PG

Arcadia Group including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, and Wallis,

Shrinking - if one v. rich person doesn't pay what he owes, everyone else has to make up the difference. Hospitals, schools, roads, armed forces, bin collections all need funding by someone. Rich person not paying his fair share means other people, far less well off, have to pay more.

His money is generated in the UK, the taxes due should be paid in the UK.

But they do pay what they owe. And presumably Mrs Greene doesn't use UK hospitals or schools or bin collections. What the armed forces do don't affect her and I doubt she uses the roads any differntly to any other visitor to the country. So why should she pay?

Sometimes it seems that people on MN begrude anyone having more than what they themselves have got. Jealousy is not an attractive quality.

why the fuck should they pay what they dont have to? if i was in their position i wouldnt either.we have a very successful business and any legitimate way of not paying taxes is taken.

I am totally in agreement with edam.

Beenbeta - why should his cleaners and shop assistant staff pay tax when he 'avoids' it.

Oh well, all the money and diamonds in the world will not prevent those vile two from being ugly fat wankers.

WTF? A woman who is not from the UK and doesn't live in the UK not paying tax to the UK is somehow wrong?

GetOrfMoiLand - Because they are legally required to pay all taxes due, the same as the Greens are.

As the methods he is using are perfectly legal he was never required to pay the tax so it can't have been expected so no one is making it up.

Saying "if you did something different you would owe money, so by not doing it's like you still owe it" just makes no sense.

This is of course the argument banks use when they charge you for buying currency from someone else - I don't buy it there either.

I think the rich need to be brought in line on taxes Clegg said they would be. when?

I agree with MumNWLondon

"The extremely easy was to make her pay tax would be to impose a dividend withholding tax. All dividends paid overseas could be subject to say a 25% withholding tax unless a lower rate applied under a tax treaty. As there is no treaty with Monaco the HMRC could take 25% off when the dividend was paid.

Lots of other European countries have dividend withholding tax can't see why it would be illegal. eg France have a 25% rate, Germany have a 25% rate, ours is 0% .

If you want to look up other countries see here:

deloitte website

And look under withholding tax."

She said it. Why can't we do what the French and Germans do?

Longstocking2 - I suspect that it is to do with encouraging companies to incorporate and list here instead of France or Germany, so that we get the tax they do pay rather than the French or Germans.

Fine, but why 0%, that seems excessively generous.

Why not 15%?

I don't know the figures, just giving one reson why you would have a different regeime to the other countries.

I don't understand it either. But we seem to be suckers if we allow massive loopholes letting UK profits go untaxed while at the same time putting people in prison for not paying their council tax.

It's a question of proportion isn't it?

If they're making billions out of the uk why can't they contribute appropriately?

Longstocking - the 25% is a bit of a red herring, because the rate is reduced to zero if paid to a person or company resident in the EU, or 5% or 10% for other countries with whom the UK has a tax treaty - generally countries that levy what HMRC consider a sensible level of tax.

Only those resident in a tax haven would be subject to the 25% rate. The UK is VERY unusual in not having a dividend withholding tax and also in allowing non domiciles live here and shelter overseas income from UK tax (although now have £25k charge, less relevant for the super wealthy but would hit the normal rich).

I know it's not illegal but it is immoral. I would gladly boycott the Arcadia group, if not for DDs Topshop addiction.

I thought this gov had said that they were going to go for some of these extreme UK anomalies?

Although I can't imagine an Old Etonian millionaire wanting to piss his mates off.

I watched a programme recently highlighting tax avoiders, the government are suppose to be cracking down on these companies/individuals. One of the companies mentioned was owned by Sir Phillip Green's wife and registered in Jersey, Arcadia is registered under a different name I believe in Jersey and this is why Mrs.Green is able to be paid huge dividends tax free. If all companies operating in the UK were to follow suit would we not be in a worse financial situation? We're talking billions here of tax free UK made money leaving our shores legally, it can't be right.

Minimising your personal and corporate tax bill is the prudent thing to do. I really don't see the problem with Mrs Green as she is south african and lives in monaco.

EggFriedRice - They could only follow suit if all their shareholders were outside the UK.

And if there WERE a lot of companies following suit then the law would change pretty quickly.