Starbucks makes billions in the British Isles but reduced its UK tax bill to near zero by using accounting tricks that, while arguably legal, are avoided by good corporate citizens, including other U.S. chain eateries. Brits were outraged, and boycotts were organized. At first, Starbucks responded to the bad publicity by cutting employee lunchbreaks and sick leave, but finally made a voluntary token payment. Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal scolded the java giant for caving in to the Twittering mob.
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Tags: Britain, corporate citizenship, corporate taxes, Starbucks, tax avoidance, tax dodgers, taxes, UK
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