A Question of Royalties

A practical solution to the problem of taxing international tech companies in the UK

For ten years tax avoidance by large multinational technology firms has been at the top of the global political agenda, but so far no effective solutions have been found. In this paper TaxWatch UK sets out a proposal that will ensure that tech companies operating in the UK are properly taxed on their profits.

The government tax break worth £100m+ for Heathrow

For years Heathrow made billions in operating profit, but paid nothing in tax. We reveal how OECD attempts to tighten up the tax system have been undermined by the UK government, giving the shareholders of Heathrow a benefit worth more than £100m a year.

Corporate Tax and Tech companies in the UK

Still Crazy after All these years

Our first report – looking at 5 of the world’s largest tech companies operating in the UK – Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Cisco Systems.

These companies have a reputation for aggressively avoiding tax. Measured in billions of dollars these titans of the US make massive profits but pay relatively little tax in the UK.

We have estimated the UK revenues and profits of these companies and calculated the tax they might have been expected to pay, if those profits were reported in the UK.