Valued at £25bn, the chain has been recently vilified having paid only £8.6m in UK corporation tax since launched in the UK over a decade ago. Despite UK sales of £3bn in their 14 years here, the firm paid a tax rate equivalent of less than 1%.
According to the Telegraph:
Following the high-profile criticism from MP's and calls for an official inquiry, Starbucks has been the first of the offending multi-nationals to try to calm the storm.Last year, (Starbucks) paid no corporation tax in the UK, despite revenues of £398m. By contrast, its rival chain, Costa, recorded £377m sales and paid a tax bill of £15m – or 31pc of profits.
Starbucks statement read:
“Starbucks is committed to the UK for the long term. [We have] complied with all the tax laws in this country but have regretfully not been as profitable as we would have liked. We have listened to feedback from customers and employees, and understand that to maintain and further build public trust we need to do more. As part of this, we are looking at our tax approach in the UK.”
Whether Starbucks have realised the severity of the charge against them (protests outside stores are hardly a glowing PR endorsement) or are desperately trying to avoid further financial sanctions, their statement has broken the indifferent silence of Amazon, Google, Facebook, eBay and Apple over "immoral" activities to escape the British taxman.
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