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02 Feb 2009 07:23
2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam
‘Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam’
2 February 2009 – Over the coming days, the Guardian will be publishing an investigation into corporate tax avoidance schemes, which may cost British tax payers as much as £12 billion per year. Some of them use subsidiaries in Amsterdam, where their profits are ‘virtually tax-free’.
One of the companies investigated by the Guardian is Diageo, owner of brands like Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys and Guinness. According to the Guardian, Diageo has cut its tax bill by £100m by moving its profits to a subsidiary located near the Amsterdam Sloterdijk Station – at least on paper.
This tax gap would equal the income taxes paid by 20,000 ordinary British households. With the help of Deloitte, Diageo struck a deal with the British tax authority, that “was considered so generous to the company that sources close to Deloitte say the firm cracked open champagne to celebrate”.
The Guardian has announced that it will reveal information on another internationally renowned corporation that located in Amsterdam to evade taxes. The investigated schemes would be legal.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, told the Guardian: “Tax avoidance is hollowing out the tax system. With the rest of us having to fill the tax gap left by Britain’s most wealthy, there is a real threat to the future of public services – especially as the recession takes its toll on normal tax flows”.
In the past, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) has called Amsterdam a ‘tax haven for multinational corporations’. Partly because of lenient tax rules, some twenty thousand mailbox companies would be active in the Netherlands, most of them operating from trust offices in Amsterdam.
Photo: Piaser
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