Oct 07

Lincoln, Edinburgh and Trafford are latest to champion fair tax conduct

Blogs, News

Local councils across the UK have made it clear: these tough times are no obstacle to doing the right thing on tax. Three more – the City of Lincoln Council, the City of Edinburgh Council and Trafford Council – have made significant commitments in support of responsible tax conduct, joining the six already signed up. Lincoln and Trafford have both approved our Councils for Fair Tax Declaration, committing them to lead by example on their own tax conduct, demand greater transparency from suppliers, and, call for more meaningful powers to tackle tax avoidance amongst suppliers. In Trafford, the motion passed…

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Jul 09

Fair Tax Mark responds to Government consultation on freeports

Blogs

The UK Government recently announced its intention to create up to 10 ‘freeports’ across the country. These are essentially special economic zones, and characteristically offer looser customs rules with the aim of attracting investment, but are also known to provide resident businesses with a wider set of preferential treatments including tax reliefs. Freeports are an issue we are concerned about due to the likelihood that they will exacerbate tax avoidance and evasion in the UK, encourage a global race to the bottom on corporation tax, create unfair advantages to a select group of businesses, and, attract illicit actors, such as…

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Apr 05

We need a Fair Tax Lockdown on bailouts

Blogs

The UK Government, like many across the world, is making available unprecedented financial support for businesses and workers impacted by the Covid-19 economic lockdown. This is right and proper given the economic lockdown is being undertaken to lessen the impact of Covid-19 on society; in particular, in protection of the elderly and those with existing health conditions. The package of support includes: a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme deferring VAT and Self-Assessment payments a Self-employment Income Support Scheme a Statutory Sick Pay relief package for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) a 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure…

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Dec 30

Fair Tax Mark’s 2019, and what’s next in 2020

Blogs, News

2019, another year of strong growth and innovation The Fair Tax Mark realised a number of landmarks in 2019, making it our most impactful year yet. A big thank you to all those in business and civil society who have done so much to help us grow our collective influence and reach. The number of Fair Tax certified businesses passed the ’50’ milestone in March, with the year seeing new certifications for FTSE-listed plcs (United Utilities,  Severn Trent and Eurocell), social enterprises (Suma Wholefoods, Southern Co-op, Community Leisure UK, Energy4All and VME Retail) and a range of private enterprises (Affinity…

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Dec 11

Greenwich is sixth Council to approve Fair Tax Declaration

Blogs

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has become the first in London to commit to our Councils for Fair Tax Declaration, joining Oxford, Oldham, Peterborough, Cannock Chase and Bingley as the sixth council to stand up for responsible tax conduct. It’s been heartening to see the breadth of support for this campaign. Councillors, whatever their political allegiance, work hard to direct the delivery of local public services and most will balk at seeing the public finances on which Councils rely undermined by dodgy and opaque tax practices. Cllr Christine Grice, Greenwich’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources said: “As a cabinet…

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Nov 04

ICRS seminar explores Fair Tax Mark

Blogs

The Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (ICRS) recently hosted a webinar exploring ‘Responsible Approaches to Tax’. The discussion featured The Fair Tax Mark, along with two of our accredited businesses, Leeds Building Society and Pennon. The webinar covered both the history of the Fair Tax Mark, as well as revealing what motivated these two leading businesses to gain accreditation and the challenges they encountered. If you would like to access a recording of the webinar, just click on the link below:

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Sep 25

“If we can’t beat them, join them” No thank you.

Blogs

Cate Atwater, Chief Executive, Community Leisure UK, shares her views about how the Fair Tax Mark helps the organisation she leads demonstrate its values, and the challenge of ‘fake non-profits’ operating in the public leisure services sector. If you would like to share your views about transparency; how you managed to certify as a Fair Tax Mark organisation; or why fair tax matters to you, we’d be pleased to hear from you press@fairtaxmark.net This is a guest blog post and its content represents the views of the author, not necessarily the views of the Fair Tax Mark. “Cate, these models…

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Jun 12

“Good” tax conduct needs to be an integral consideration of Government supply contracts

Blogs, News

This week, GMB Union has released research which calculates that Amazon has won £460million of public procurement contracts in the past four years. This is the same Amazon that the European Commission has recently ordered Luxembourg to recover unpaid taxes worth €250 million from, saying the country had granted Amazon’s European arm “undue tax benefit” by allowing it to shift profits to a tax-exempt shell company. Understandably, this led Dame Margaret Hodge MP and Andrew Mitchell MP – key leaders of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax – to call for the UK Government to deprive such companies of…

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Jan 03

The rise of responsible tax leadership

Blogs

The following interview with our Chief Executive, Paul Monaghan, was recently published by CSR Europe – who will launch a Blueprint on Tax Transparency and Responsibility in March 2019. It explores the emerging trends around responsible tax conduct, and it is reproduced here with their kind permission.   What are the best enablers to get more companies to become responsible tax payers? At the Fair Tax Mark we are finding that different types of corporation have different key motivators. Investors are increasingly pressing listed companies to explain their management of tax risk, and so we are seeing a big increase in transparency…

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Sep 12
Richer Sounds - one of the Fair Tax Mark accredited high street retailers

Can you avoid the tax avoiders?

Blogs

Tax avoidance; a huge issue that’s not going away. Tax matters. It helps to fund vital public services, and when paid fairly, ensures a level playing field for businesses large and small. Our research found that seven in ten of the public would rather shop (69%), or work for a business (70%) which can prove it’s paying its fair share of tax; and three quarters (74%) supported a call for all companies of all sizes to publicly disclose the taxes they pay in the UK. Yet despite these sentiments, the growing market worth of the most notorious tax avoiders show…

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