The case against Fortnum & Mason - not yet proven
Posted by Christie Malry on March 27, 2011 at 10:51 pm
On Saturday 26 March, protestors from UKuncut invaded Fortnum & Mason and arranged a sit-in to protest at what they described as "tax avoidance" by their parent company.
But on what grounds?
UK Uncut, the anti-cuts direct action group, are currently occupying Fortnum & Mason over the tax dodge of over 40 million by its owners Whittington Investments which have a 54% stake in Associated British Foods who produce Ryvita, Kingsmill and others and own Primark. ABF have dodged over £40 million in tax.
Note first off the extreme confusion between whether they're criticising Wittington Investments, the parent company, or ABF, the majority owned subsidiary.
And, unfortunately, that's as far as the evidence goes. Other bloggers (eg here, here and, especially here) have been scratching their heads trying to understand more, but so far UKuncut isn't explaining why they believe Fortnum & Mason to be a valid target for protest. Is it envy? Confusion? Idiocy? It's particularly curious, given Wittington's ultimate ownership by the Garfield Weston Foundation, a charitable grant-making body originally funded out of the great fortune of Garfield Weston, a very rich Canadian businessman. What was that they were saying about the uber-rich being greedy bastards who hate helping others?
I've asked for further details on the tax avoidance allegations, and will post them if/when I get them. But this looks being yet another flimsy portfolio of evidence on which to base a misguided anti-tax avoidance campaign.
Hi Christy,
This was postyed on the UKUncut blog. Could you analyse it please and if wrong, write a rebuttal.
Thanks,
Mike
Tax scam
Fortnum & Mason is owned by Wittington Investments. Wittington Investments has a 54% stake in Associated British Foods (ABF), a multinational food corporation with revenues of some £10bn/year.
Some time between 2005 and 2008, ABF set up a holding company in Luxembourg. It then sent large sums of money - interest free - from ABF PLC and Primark (Ireland), also owned by ABF, into this holding account, from which it was sent straight back, this time with interest charges.
According to tax experts, this has meant ABF's annual tax avoidance amounts to at least £10m through offsetting interest payments on profits.
Although Wittington is ultimately linked backed to the Weston Family Trust, which has charitable status, ABF is not a charity in any sense. The Weston Family Trust naturally support the pro-corporate, pro-privatisation policies being promoted by the coalition government and are major backers of the Tory Party.
This is just one example of the many super rich individuals and profitable big businesses going out of their way to minimise their tax bills. Some £25bn every year is thought to be lost to the public purse by wealthy tax avoiders. This money needs to be recouped to help save our essential public services.
So they went into one company because another, entirely seperate company, they accuse of sometime arranging to fiddle tax? Oh, and not forgetting they also now dislike shops catering to rich people, because they cater to rich people.....
IF there is any truth in this,
why did they go and sit in Fortnum & Mason which is barely in profit (literally) when they could have taken over the flagship store of the hundreds of million pounds profit Primark up the road?
Would it not make ABF sit up and take notice more if this message got out about Primark?
It probably is true that the shoppers of Fortnum are not impacted by cuts as much as ordinary folk..is it that surprising..they are mainly foreign tourists.
I guess that if they followed up protests in Arcadia stores with protests in Primark they might have to start facing up to the facts that their entire wardrobes were bought from people who minimise their tax liabilities, and that if they *really* wanted to stand by their principles they have to start shopping only in places where everything is more expensive.
(note: whilst that may read as a stereotype-y attack on the UKUncut demographic, it’s not intended as such.. just a comment on the fact that we all ‘enjoy’ a share of the fruits of tax avoidance)
£10m in avoidance?
There's much clearer evidence of much higher avoidance at GMG, The Guardian's owners.
http://order-order.com/2011/02/21/the-guardian-un...