Yahoo – AFP,
16 April 2014
London (AFP) - Starbucks said on Wednesday it was re-locating its European headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain a year after the US coffee giant was heavily criticised by British lawmakers for tax avoidance.
A man parks
his hire bicycle outside a branch of Starbucks in central
London on February 1,
2013 (AFP Photo/Carl Court)
|
London (AFP) - Starbucks said on Wednesday it was re-locating its European headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain a year after the US coffee giant was heavily criticised by British lawmakers for tax avoidance.
The
company, the world's largest coffee shop chain, said it would pay more tax in
Britain as a result of the re-location, which is expected to take place at the
end of the year.
Britain is
the group's largest and fastest-growing market. Starbucks expects to open
another 100 outlets there this year.
Customers
leave a branch of
Starbucks in central London on
February 1, 2013 (AFP
Photo/Carl
Court)
|
"This
move will mean we pay more tax in the UK."
Starbucks
and a number of other multi-national companies, including Amazon and Google,
have come under pressure from politicians and campaigners over their tax
affairs.
In 2012,
Starbucks acknowledged it had not paid any corporation tax in Britain on sales
worth £400 million (485 million euros, $670 million) between 2009 and 2012.
It was able
to do so by paying fees to other areas of its business -- such as "royalty
payments" for the use of the brand -- which resulted in the company
posting a series of losses.
It has
reported profit only once since it entered the British market in 1998.
Last year,
in the face of a public backlash over its tax arrangements in Britain,
Starbucks agreed to pay £20 million in instalments of corporation tax, adding
it had "listened" to its customers.
The
announcement came after British Prime Minister David Cameron launched a
crackdown in 2012 to tackle tax avoidance, which is legal, and illegal tax
evasion.
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