Last June I posted about the thorny issue of tax dodging (Jimmy Carr and Amazon), pointing out that "Amazon do millions, if not billions, of business in the UK. But they don't pay any tax here. Amazon have the right to arrange their tax affairs in any legal way they like. But we don't have to buy books from them. I find www.abebooks.co.uk a perfectly good substitute."
I might have added Starbucks and Google to Amazon; and now it appears that Starbucks are going to re-arrange their affairs to increase their tax exposure. Hooray. These people need our goodwill and custom.
Incidentally, if Starbucks were really making no profits from their UK business, why do they have one? Why don't they just close it down? That Starbucks think it worth operating here gives the lie to the pretence that they aren't making any money.
That still leaves Amazon (and no doubt plenty of others). Every pound we don't spend there increases the pressure on them. Come on citizens! Keep your wallets in your pockets!
