Starbucks pays up £5m in UK corporation tax
Starbucks has made its first corporation tax payment in the UK since 2009, handing over £5m to HM Revenue and Customs.
While the coffee chain has maintained that its UK business is running at a loss because of high rental rates, it said this weekend that it had listened to its customers and would be making a further payment of £5m this year.
“Six months ago, we felt that our customers should not have to wait for us to become profitable before we started paying UK corporation tax,” said the company in a statement.
“We listened to our customers in December and so decided to forgo certain deductions which would make us liable to pay £10m in corporation tax this year and a further £10m in 2014. We have now paid £5m and will pay the remaining £5m later this year.”
The company has faced widespread criticism since it was disclosed that it paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in the UK in 14 years, during which time it had sales of £3bn, and that it had paid nothing since 2009.