Not Just a Granny

Oh woe is me!!! This is the death of the Starbucks gingerbread latte for me.  Since about 2006, once autumn was in the air, I have waited with anticipation for when Starbucks bring back their gingerbread lattes – my favourite winter drink!

death of the Starbucks gingerbread latte 😦 saving lives and tax!

This for me heralded the season of dressing up in my winter woollies, xmas lights and snow (hopefully!)….whoo hoo!

Just yesterday I read in the Daily Mail that Starbucks has (allegedly) not paid any tax in the UK for the last three years!   And they are not alone.  Since the furore created with the news that the many of the large Corporations sponsoring the London2012 Olympics were exempt from paying tax I have decided to take a stand and boycott any company that does not pay tax and/or pays their CEO’s outrageously over-the-top salaries and bonuses.  The latter are usually the banks and invariably these men at the top walk away from their posts after a few years with perks/payouts/pensions in the £millions.   Are these types of payouts warranted?  And what about when the banks fail?   Invariably we; the British tax-payer have to bail them out….along with all the other (m)uck-ups!

So since the furore of the Olympics I have kept a close eye on the papers and especially on the large corporations that pay very little or no tax in the UK,  this despite a turn-over that runs to £millions plus.  According to the Daily Mail Starbucks posted a UK loss of £33million on sales of £398million (it does however pay VAT on in-store hot drinks!) Big deal…WE pay the VAT. It’s included in our bill and all they do is hand that over to the Treasury…  It does make you wonder that if they are posting such huge losses, are their CEO’s capable of running a company?  They should be making a profit, how come such big losses?  And I am not referring to legitimate expenses.

So coming back to the subject in hand, this means the death of my gingerbread latte…I am from now boycotting Starbucks and any other company that I hear of that doesn’t pay tax, especially if I have to pay them for their product or service.  So far facebook and google are only exempt from my boycott because they are free, although that does not excuse them.  A small stand perhaps but from the backlash on twitter last night I would hazard a guess that there are a great number of people in the UK that are fed-up with the large USA corporations coming into the UK, opening up shop, making money and then laughing all the way to the bank, and mind the UK companies that do the same thing.   Whatever has happened to ethics and honesty in business?

read more:

Starbucks

facebook

amazon & google

and this has been going on for some years now….

The Great Tax heist

and Comics have gotten in on the act too!

my idol has fallen 😦

and lets not forget our erstwhile politicians…the people we are meant to trust, the people we trust to do good for us in Government!!  reminds me of the whole debacle a few years ago….and duckgate!!!  All very well selling the duck house for charity…he sure knows that you can claim any donations to charity off your tax!! So big deal!!

and the list goes on, and not just in business either – a report from the TUC has claimed that every year an astonishing £13 billion is avoided in taxes by the UK’s wealthiest people….well of course they would, they have smart, expensive lawyers that can unearth all the loop-holes.

Seems the old adage of “there are two things in life you cannot avoid: death and taxes” is no longer valid…. you CAN avoid tax.

However….we also have some honest Business men who do pay their taxes

On the bright side…..I am saving myself a heck of a lot of money by not buying from these companies and as I unearth more….the C.H.I.P.S. will fall.    And the issue that sparked the creation of the page!

UPDATE:

2012.10.19 and so the chickens come home to roost GOOGLE now don’t get me wrong, I love google I have no problem with them making bundles of cash/a profit and I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to use it for my business, but I do object to these large corporations NOT PAYING THEIR DUE TAXES.