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Original poster

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

242 replies

EggFriedRice · 09/12/2010 20:01

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 Angry

OP posts:
TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 10/12/2010 13:24

Incidentally, anyone who has bought cd's from Amazon in the last few years has probably avoided VAT thanks to them dispatching from Jersey.

This kind of thing means that all these tax tricks will get looked at a lot more closely.

Longstocking2 · 10/12/2010 13:44

But you have to look at the morally disproportionate case of a person going to prison for non payment of certain bills/taxes and the billionaires who use tax loopholes to avoid paying tax.

We all want a prosperous uk but people should pay proportionately to what they're making and if they're making it out of the UK and enjoying benefits of citizenship, influence etc they should contribute proportionately

uyter · 10/12/2010 14:06

They go to prison because not paying your tax bill is tax evasion and illegal, what Mrs Green does is perfectly legitimate, legal and makes sound commercial sense

BeenBeta · 10/12/2010 14:14

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

Same reason as I pay tax in the UK. I live here and am resident and domiciled for tax purposes.

Mrs Green isn't.

AbsofCroissant · 10/12/2010 14:24

And, tax reasons aside, maybe she lives in Monaco because it's sunny and by the beach?

this

versus
this

I know what I would go for ...

AbsofCroissant · 10/12/2010 14:24

or even this

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 10/12/2010 14:30

Some friends of mine like their gambling and had a weekend break in Monaco.

Apparantly very, very rich people are RUBBISH dancers.

AbsofCroissant · 10/12/2010 14:31

DP used to live there. Said it was very boring unless you were old and rich. Which she is, so she must love it!

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 10/12/2010 14:40

I think a lot of very rich people are also very dull. Which might be why they are rich. Nothing better to do.

kerstina · 10/12/2010 14:57

Agree with Longstocking. Please, a lot of us are in agreement over this to boycott the arcadia group. It is very bad PR for him so we need to keep the pressure on him and this government to end this morally unfair tax avoidance when "we are all in this together".
I was out shopping and am sticking to also avoiding Cadburys (Kraft) products for the same reason.

BeenBeta · 10/12/2010 15:03

You would have to avoid just about every firm in the UK. All large firms do everything they can to legally minimise tax and indeed it is the fiduciary duty of the directors of firms to do that on behalf of shareholders.

Many firms have foreign owners too that pay no tax in the UK. It would be practically impossible nad futile to avoid using all the firms involved.

BeenBeta · 10/12/2010 15:05

Point I am making is why pick on Mrs Green?

Is this a left wing political campaign?

ShrinkingViolet · 10/12/2010 15:08

I assume that everyone who thinks Mrs Green should be paying UK taxes is not taking advantage of their personal allowance nor the lower tax bands. How dare you not pay more tax than you actually owe.

mayorquimby · 10/12/2010 15:30

BUT SHE'S RICHER THAN US. SHE SHOULD PAY MORE TAX THAN SHE IS LEGALLY OBLIGED TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

curlymama · 10/12/2010 15:40

BUT SHE'S RICHER THAN US. SHE SHOULD PAY MORE TAX THAN SHE IS LEGALLY OBLIGED TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What utter bollocks!

How do you know they don't give money to charity? Do you seriously expect someone to say 'here, I've got a spare million, Dave, you have it to spend on clearing up the mess those student protesters have just made'

Honestly, I have never heard such crud. The Greens probably pay more in tax than most of us earn in 10 years through their company, you want them to pay more and then you have the cheek to call them greedy! Smacks of jealousy to me.

curlymama · 10/12/2010 15:42

Oh, and I assume that none of you people who are slagging off the Greens have ever done a cash in hand job or paid someone else to.

No, of course not, because tax evasion is illegal. Hmm

oxfordlass · 10/12/2010 15:55

but it's the hypocracy of it all, isn't it?

PG was employed to assess spending by local councils, and made it headline news that shock horror some employees - probably those who were not office bound and needed to work remotely, ie social workers - were given Blackberries. He made a huge song and dance about it all, from what I remember..

curlymama · 10/12/2010 16:02

Maybe he felt that they didn't need blackberries in order to do their job. Maybe they did, I don't know, but if he was asked to give his opinion and then he did, that has nothing to do with the tax issue.

I see alot of hypocracy on this thread, see my post above.

edam · 10/12/2010 16:06

quite, oxford.

The whole arrangement where dividends from his company are paid to the Mrs who just happens to live in a tax haven stinks to high heaven.

kerstina · 10/12/2010 16:13

Yes exactly Oxfordlass!
Been beta you might scoff that we might as well be avoiding most high street stores well so be it! It is not a left wing campaign as far as i am concerned just a lot of people who are very angry about these rich people who set out to exploit us. Am totally fed up with globalisation and big business.

beijingaling · 10/12/2010 16:41

I have zero knowledge of this stuff so please help me out...

First does mrs g get the dividend for owning shares in her husbands company or for another reason?

If yes it's because she owns the shares are people saying that she shouldn't be able to buy shares in her husbands publicly listed company or that ppl should pay tax on dividends regardless of their nationality and location or that only British tax residents should have access to British shares?

Second question for those who wish to boycott arcadia: should we only buy products from companies where the owners/board directors are uk tax residents? I ask because It seems people are saying that their employees pay tax here so surely the business owners should too.

mayorquimby · 10/12/2010 16:58

"What utter bollocks!"
Blush
sorry I was trying to be facetious/parody the ridiculous arguments of those who somehow feel that a person paying the amount of tax that they legally owe is somehow immoral.

Rollmops · 10/12/2010 16:59

Eeerm... perhaps she likes it in Monaco?Hmm I can think of worse places to live.... a lot of them in fact Hmm

Rollmops · 10/12/2010 17:01

And who in the right mind would ever shop in the Top whatever anyway? Confused It's full of cheap crap, to put it kindly.

nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree · 10/12/2010 17:22

Apparently the Greens moved to Monaco when Mr. G stopped working due to a heart scare in the 90's.

After he had recovered he decided to return to work (and started receiving a - and PAYING TAX on - a salary) but because their two children were settled in Monaco Mrs.G and the children stayed there whilst Mr.G now commutes.

But hell, perhaps she should have been forced to move.

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