He is upset that businesses are using foreign countries with more attractive tax laws as a haven for tax saving.
From here:
The Archbishop kept his strongest comments for the role taxes play in ensuring that companies contribute to the societies in which they operate.
“There has always been the principle that you pay the tax where you earn the money,” he told me.
“If you earn the money in a country, the revenue service of that country needs to get a fair share of what you have earned.”
Welby’s point about contributing to the society in which a business operates by paying tax in that country would be more convincing if the Church of England didn’t receive extravagant tax breaks. The church collects £1 billion a year in donations, spends £189 million in salaries, has an investment portfolio worth £5.5 billion and receives £84 million in Gift Aid tax rebates.
The church, of course, is a charity and does not operate for profit – although the £5.5 billion looks suspiciously like profit to me. In spite of its spiritual aspirations – none of which seem particularly in evidence these days – as an organisation, the CofE runs as a business.
It doesn’t help that in 2012 when the government threatened to impose VAT tax on church building renovations, the church pleaded to be exempt from that tax, too.
To be clear: I don’t think churches should have to pay tax. However, since churches are in that privileged position in our society, a church leader who whines about businesses minimising their taxes deserves all the ridicule we can muster: his organisation is a consummate tax dodger.
As the article states, Welby is simply echoing the words of Mark Carney, the current governor of the Bank of England and the former governor at the Bank of Canada. What is he saying is nothing different than what 99% of society thinks.
Probably true. But, then, if all a church leader has to say is what 99% of the secular world already thinks, perhaps he should just keep quiet.
I think the point is that while society may agree, it does not occur in reality… hence him speaking out on it.
…Or perhaps he should change careers and earn an honest living.
I fully agree with the sentiment that taxes should be paid in the jurisdiction within which they were earned. However that does not equate to governments spending irresponsibly and raising taxes recklessly. Just as much as democratic governments are accountable to the voters they should also be accountable to the tax payers. It is the taxpayer after all that did the work and took the risks that created the wealth that everyone else seems to want and feel entitled to.
The socialists constantly need to be reminded that when they tax us too much we shall stop doing the very thing that creates wealth and in turn taxes. Or alternatively we shall move and do it somewhere else. Then there shall be no taxes and their socialist dreams will be failures.
But at least they remain kings of the dunghill, and that’s really all they care about.
I know I won’t get much support on this but I believe that there should be no charitable donation exemption in our tax system. If we believe in giving why should we be rewarded ,unfortunately the ones who would suffer would be those that need the money but it would also take a big chunk of change from the political parties who thrive on them. Also there would more money in government to help those in need.
Ther should be no deductions if and only if taxes were so low that they wouldn’t be necessary. This way individuals and NGO’s could care for the needy (vs the “wanty”) with their money as they see fit.
I thought businesses contributed to society by employing people and providing goods and services…silly me!
Silly You, you have to tax those guys so that that the motivation is taken away from them to create businesses ,then the government will take over those businesses ’cause we have to keep those tax payers working or we just roll them all over into government jobs which the unions love because of all that tax free money coming in (dues) ,and they can spend all that money on their minions ,I mean brothers and sisters in the cause.
Thank you, comrade, for correcting my counterrevolutionarily errant thinking. I shall say 10 “Hail Hillary’s” for my penance.