Margaret Hodge's family company pays just 0.01pc tax on £2.1bn of business generated in the UK

[ariadneoliver]

Awkward

Is this based on one years set of accounts?

Tax isn't based on revenue, it's based on profit. So if you have a load of costs coming through in one year then tax will be lower. You can't really judge without knowing the full facts and if it's a regular occurence

I really hope this isn't accurate (as Iggly says).

If it is, she shouldn't be investigating other tax avoiders/evaders. Or maybe that would make her a good choice of investigator as she would know all the tricks.

Sometimes it feels like there's a large, secretive group of greedy people who spend all their time scheming and manipulating the system to squeeze as much money as possible from the rest of us.

Someone tell me it isn't like that at all.

" ?In the past three years, a total of £14m of corporation tax has been paid by Stemcor in the UK. Stemcor?s effective tax rate internationally in the last three years has been over 30pc.?"

some truth in what iggly said, it seems.

though again, avoidance isn't illegal, and any company avoiding tax is only doing its duty as laid out by tax legislation.

Avoiding tax isn't 'doing your duty', surely?!

Wouldn't it be nobler to say to yourself, 'Well, yes, I can see how I could avoid paying tax here, but I benefit from the roads and the schools and the hospitals as much as anyone, so even if I don't need to pay it, I will'. That I could really admire.

according to tax law it is.

it is also HMRCs job to maximise tax collected.

correction: according to case law

Even if that is your interpretation, is it the intention of the law?

[[http://order-order.com/2012/11/21/margaret-hodges-multi-million-pound-stemcor-trusts/ Margaret Hodge?s Multi-Million Pound Stemcor Trusts
Says £1.8 Million Shareholding is ?Tiny, Tiny, Tiny?]] She really isn't helping herself with this comment.

People seem, to muddle income and profit. If I buy tables for £100 and sell them for £101 then my profit is £1,. It is not some dreadful tax scam if I only pay taxo n £1. It is the only fair result.

This company pays about 30% tax worldwide on its income.

Also tax avoidance is legal and to be encouraged. Tax evasion is illegal and wrong. We keep forgetting that.

Tax avoidance is legal.....but that is a loophole which needs closing, especially in a time when so many people are struggling financially due to cuts which are deemed necessar.

What loophole? You are taxed on your profits. So the company making £1 profit on what it sells is just taxed on the £1 profit. That is not a loophole.

The state can decide what it wants taxing and not of course. So if it decides if a working husband puts savings into the name of a housewife so she pays no tax on the interest it might think that is immoral tax avoidance and bung a new tax on it or abolish tax relief on pensions as it may be about to etc

She isn't doing anything wrong, legally or morally. If inheritance tax wasn't to ridiculously high in the first place, she might not have felt the need to put some of her wealth in trust for her children.

She may not be doing anything wrong but given her very strong criticism of other companies doing the same thing it would appear to be one rule for her and one for everyone else ...

Thi sis why this moral thing about lawful tax avoidance was always going to backfire. It's like when the Tories did back to basics morals and then we found they were all having affairs.