This day’s portion

How not to pay tax for 20 years

Just in case you were wondering how it’s done:

[Vodafone] has parked losses of around £70 billion in Luxembourg. These are not real losses, but paper ones, from the acquisition of various companies, including the German engineering and telecommunications company, Mannesmann, in 2000. However, under Luxembourg’s tax system, this paper loss miraculously produces a tax ‘credit’ of £17.4 billion! Vodafone’s Tax Credit of £17.4 billion

Assuming a company will always try and find the most favourable tax regime, what’s the answer to this problem? (If, like me, you do indeed think it is a problem.) Is it to shame the company into handing over tax? How likely will this work?

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