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Tesco tax dodging


Tesco Britain 1, originally uploaded by replicam.

Tesco has come under criticism for tax avoidance. It seems they have hived off their property to a company in the Cayman Islands and avoiding UK taxes.

Good luck to them. People should stop tut-tutting about the tax dodgers and aim their anger at the real culprits - the government and its advisors.

It is the tax system that creates the dodging opportunities in the first place. People and companies are mobile. Property is fixed. If the tax liability went with the land ownership, then nobody could escape it by syphoning funds off into associate companies based in tax havens. It is up to the Chancellor to sort out the problem, which is inherent in the system and will not be resolved by endlessly attempting to plug loopholes.

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