2 companies in the news today, firstly, Amazon who only paid £220m tax in the UK on sales of £14.5bn but also Marks who have been relegated from the FTSE 100 for the first time, but they have to pay alot more tax pro rata especially on business rates which seem to be killing the high street
One would hope post Brexit and 'taking back control' would mean leveling this playing field, I suspect, however it will more than likely exacerbate it
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/03/amazon-accused-of-handing-over-diddly-squat-in-corporation-tax-despite-tripling-payment 
Comments
The much maligned M&S. Clothes for old people supposedly, not fashionable, too expensive. I have M&S shirts that are 20/30 years old, they defy fashion, a shirt is a shirt. I own M&S shoes that are 10 years old, still lots of sole left (Oh yeah), still shine up nicely and are still comfortable. You can get similar stuff for 1/2 the price in Primark or Tesco or any of Phil Green's emporia. You'll be lucky if they last more than a year.
And thereby hangs the tale. Fashion. We've all been brainwashed to follow fashion.
Amazon ? .. there is a huge (and I mean HUGE) Amazon warehouse complex off the M18 south of Doncaster. I wonder how much the company is charged for rent and rates on that site ?. On the positive front, it employs a lot of people (presumably on minimum wage) in an area short of decent jobs. And Amazon allows people to buy stuff at a reasonable price and have it delivered to their door. The old fashioned bricks and mortar retailers just cannot compete with this convenience.
I agree that the tax structure allowing Amazon and its ilk to avoid tax needs reforming.
What also needs reforming is the situation where 'the high street shops' are paying sky high and often unjustifiable rent and rates.
At the moment Strood where I live are doing loads of road works, trying to make it easier to get around the one way system (only made large parts worse) and making the pedestrian areas look nice and pretty - In effect they're trying to polish a turd... Not that Strood is as shit a hole as some parts of Medway but why go to all the effort when they charge stupid amounts for rent, firstly big companies arent going to be interested, secondly you can base your retail company down the road in the likes of Bluewater where its free to park and your almost guaranteed visitors
Ironically Strood is even more quiet on a Sunday as most places are closed there and people flock to Bluewater regardless
Until councils wake up, these high streets are going to turn into cheap Pound Shops / Takeaways etc. - And yup; just 10mins up the road is another Amazon warehouse, so people dont even have leave their homes to go to the big retail venues anymore, especially when Amazon now do same day delivery on a lot of items
will call themselves Stretch Marks from now on.
boom boom.
Alan Partridge has been their fashion buyer for far too long.
*struts off proudly in his beige chinos and suede slip on hush puppies* 😂
edit: from the Sir David Attenborough range no less, none of your shite!
Any company who does more than 20% of their business online he proposed they pay higher taxes. Watch the online retailers open up high street shops then
Its worth watching the video or listening to the audio of it to get the full picture but it sounded sensible to me
Mike Ashley obviously knows his stuff and whilst I personally think zero hour contracts are shady as shit in the same meeting he said they had surveyed all of their staff on them and over 2 thirds were happy on them as in they would rather be on 0 hour contracts than tied to x amount of hours. Take that as you will, I think you need to have a degree of certainty but that's maybe just me
How about a green tax on deliveries like £20 per delivery.