Kraft's secret Swiss tax dodge latest rogue behaviour by
multinationals, asks Unite?
4 December 2010
Unite reacted furiously to reports in today's press (the
Guardian, Saturday) that Kraft, the US owners of Cadbury, is
secretly planning to make the iconic chocolate company part of a
new Swiss company - in so doing, avoiding the conglomerate's duty
to pay taxes in the UK.
Jennie Formby, Unite's national officer for the food and drink
sector, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace that companies which make
billions of pounds of profit from sales in the UK are able to avoid
paying corporation tax in this way.
"Kraft claims this will not impact its workforce but that simply
isn’t true. Its workforce is hurt by the massive cuts in
public spending currently being inflicted on them by the coalition
government. The last thing they need at the moment is for
Kraft to add to the misery by depriving the exchequer of yet more
millions.
"If companies like Kraft and Vodafone could no longer take
advantage of our lenient taxation system and were made to pay the
tax they owe the UK, the country in which they manufacture and
operate, then we would not need the cuts that are being imposed
now.
"These tremendously wealthy multinationals like Kraft are
behaving like rogues. Ordinary people will be rightly furious
that they must suffer for the financial crisis they did not cause
and then hurt further because of these global tax dodges.
"The coalition cannot turn a blind eye - if we are all in this
together, as it insists in claiming, it would clamp down on these
abuses now.”
ENDS
For further information, please call Pauline Doyle on 07976 832
861 or Jennie Formby on 07702 206 436
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