London Vodafone shop in Lockdown.

[DornochCaley]

Up to 60 protesters brought Londons main Vodafone shop to a standstill today. Vodafone have been let off by the Government by paying back 6 Billion pounds worth (roughly) in tax evasion. These people blocked the shop and police, including some in Riot gear were brought in. Saturday is seeing demonstrations similar to these carried out across the UK against Vodafone.

6 Billion of taxpayers money?! To think 7 billion has just been slashed of the Welfare recently.... Shocking.

[Yngwie]

Erm, why protest against Vodafone if it was the UK government who let them off?

Thr truth is though that they have not evaded any tax. This relates to the complex acquisition of Mannesman (a German company) through a Luxembourg company and the problem is that when you have different states within the EU with completely different tax rates and structures, nobody is going to volunteer to pay more tax than they have to.

If you ever subscribed to Setanta or various other TV channels, you would have been paying absolutely no UK VAT because the money goes to Luxembourg where the rate is 4% rather than the UK's 17.5%. In that scenario, should rentamob come round and protest outside your house because you are evading tax?

[DornochCaley]

There are already protests against the Government going on. But, companies like these are evading tax and getting let off with this. They should not be allowed to get away with it and it was only a small amount of time before the working people got sick of things like this.

6 BILLION pounds which could have gone into taxes to help us. Why the **** should people who are struggling have money taken from them when they can hardly afford it, yet filthy rich companies like these get let off with it? It is discusting and our Government are a joke.

[Scotty]

As with anything, it is not that cut and dried ......... Have heard nothing about it over here, but forbes magazine has an interesting article: http://blogs.forbes.com/parmyolson/2010/10/28/behind-vodafones-multi-billion-dollar-tax-flap/

To answer the question

"Why the **** should people who are struggling have money taken from them when they can hardly afford it, yet filthy rich companies like these get let off with it?

perhaps this paragraph from Forbes might help explain it ..... basically, they can afford to get the best people as advisors on how to dodge the tax, whereas we, the public cannot !

the man who negotiated on behalf of Vodafone for its tax settlement, John Connors, had previously worked at HMRC as the head of its large business services division, and negotiated on behalf of the tax authority. That is until April 2007, when Vodafone hired him and he moved to the other side of the negotiating table.

[Alex MacLeod]

Out of a population in excess of 60 million around 60 persons protested. Does that not tell you that most of us dont give a damn. Its business. Its the way companies and governments work. Its common practise. Why single out vodaphone when even bigger companies hedge funds through low tax countries. If this country wasn't such a high tax bracketed country then companies wouldn't feel the need to spread their offices around.

What the protesters and the OP should be fighting against is not the Vodaphones of the world but the governments. Soon we will be paying 20% VAT. We are one of the highest taxed countries in the world. We pay, depending on income, up to 50% in income tax and soon will pay a further 20% on VAT. It has been calculated that the average person, in work, pays out around 78% of what they earn in various taxes. You may not believe those figures but they are true. Look at your earnings then deduct all the taxes you pay. Income tax, VAT on all bar food, Insurance tax, council tax, spirit tax, fuel tax, the list goes on and on.

Trouble is we are British, we have no fight, we just accept.

[DornochCaley]

Out of a population in excess of 60 million around 60 persons protested. Does that not tell you that most of us dont give a damn. Its business. Its the way companies and governments work. Its common practise. Why single out vodaphone when even bigger companies hedge funds through low tax countries. If this country wasn't such a high tax bracketed country then companies wouldn't feel the need to spread their offices around.

What the protesters and the OP should be fighting against is not the Vodaphones of the world but the governments. Soon we will be paying 20% VAT. We are one of the highest taxed countries in the world. We pay, depending on income, up to 50% in income tax and soon will pay a further 20% on VAT. It has been calculated that the average person, in work, pays out around 78% of what they earn in various taxes. You may not believe those figures but they are true. Look at your earnings then deduct all the taxes you pay. Income tax, VAT on all bar food, Insurance tax, council tax, spirit tax, fuel tax, the list goes on and on.

Trouble is we are British, we have no fight, we just accept.

Good post that, Alex. What i will say is that i am very anti-government. I was just really pointing out to everyone on here what Vodafone have been up to. Though, i agree with Scotty that there will be many other companies that dodge tax as well.

And btw, that last line is put Brilliantly