Vodafone in Protests – Again - 9/11/10
Posted by Kevin Box on Tue, Nov 09, 2010 @ 02:57 AM
With protestors stating that Vodafone has dodged £6bn in tax, 
David Hill argues that we should be able to trust HMRC to do what is right rather than what is convenient.
Vodafone Stores Hit
Protestor group, UKuncut, want Vodafone to pay more tax and have decided they will protest about the £6bn they allege Vodafone should pay. In one day of protest, on a Saturday, a few of the larger Vodafone stores were targeted and closed.
The amount in dispute relates to the Sir Chris Gent deal when Vodafone took over Mannesman for a world-breaking sum.
Dash for Cash
Currently the Treasury has instructed HMRC to collect cash owed from merger deals and, in this so-called “dash for cash”, Vodafone’s deal smacks of being such a deal. The point being that you can either argue about it for ever or settle now and get the cash into the exchequer.
On the face of it, such a stance from the politicians seems sensible – if they want to get things moving they need the taxes now, not next year. We all applaud the desire to collect taxes from tax dodgers but the problem is when it all seems capricious. A deal here and a deal there and pretty soon you’ve blown a few billion. It just doesn’t seem right that the taxman should become judge and jury in his own cases though. He now chooses arbitrarily areas which appear to give the “richest pickings” and then specifically targets these. We all want our fellow man to be taxed fairly but the perceived unfairness of this in all directions needs looking at.
Vodafone Fighting
Vodafone are currently fighting a £1.2bn tax bill from India - again citing clever tax planning as their saviour. All this doesn’t seem to have caused much desperation in the hands of the Vodafone shareholder though, with share prices rising 2.3% over the last week.
Doing what is Right
Ultimately all any company wants is a fair playing field. Cloudnet wants to be able to compete with the big guys by offering high standards at an amazing price point. If the big companies like Vodafone get unfair tax breaks because they have good lawyers then it is simply not a fair game for all.
So, for once, I actually find myself agreeing with the sentiment of the protestors. However, protesting against Vodafone is the wrong target as they only did what they should have. It is HMRC that the protest should be made against. We need HMRC to be accountable and transparent - something I’m sure we can all agree on.
Cloudnet
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