Thread by @steveparks

Today I’m at the Fair Tax conference at @amnesty - all about getting more transparency in companies’ financial reporting, and ensuring businesses pay their fair share for public services they benefit from. I’ll share notes during day in this thread...
#FairTaxWeek @FairTaxMark

These are some of the businesses accredited for the @FairTaxMark - and I was very proud to see the @weareconvivio bench on this screen alongside Richer Sounds, Timpson, Lush, Coop and more...

The brilliantly plain-speaking CEO of the Fair Tax Mark, Paul Monaghan, is opening the conference. He says that the tax take is going up as a result of clampdowns in recent years, but approx £7bn of tax is still being lost to global companies shifting profits out of the UK...

He names and shames Amazon, Starbucks and others for paying derisory tax in the UK, claiming no profits - “if I was running a business that had massive UK operations, and those operations genuinely ‘failed to make a profit’ for the last 20 years, I’d not be in business long”

He unveils new survey results which show the public now cares about these issues more than ever before.

This question shows substantially more consumers want to buy from shops that can prove they pay fair tax #FairTaxWeek

More customers are willing to switch where they buy from in favour of one that has the fair tax mark...

And more people want to celebrate the businesses that do pay their fair share

Next up, Susan Davy, the CFO of Pennon Group. They run various water and waste management companies, including South West Water, and they are one of the few listed companies (so far) accredited for the Fair Tax Mark...

They have steered their fair tax policy by carrying out research with customers to understand priorities and views...

They found in their focus groups that fair tax was rated fairly high up in the priorities of their customers...

And like all the companies here today, Pennon Group is happy to #SayWhatYouPayWithPride by showing their #fairtax figures publicly and transparently - and you can read the full details here: pennon-group.co.uk/sites/default/…

Next up is Julian Richer, founder of @RicherSounds who are also accredited for the @FairTaxMark and have long been known for ethical entrepreneurship... #FairTaxWeek

Julian says he’s disappointed to see a new class of politician emerging - “the poverty denier”, yet poverty is an increasing problem in modern Britain with a “punitive and hostile” benefits system...

Julian says zero-hours contracts “are evil”, with one bad effect being that people can’t get access to private housing because can’t prove earnings, but there’s not enough social housing because homes privatised by ‘right to buy’ have not been replaced...

Julian says an underlying problem is aggressive tax avoidance. Says it’s around £90bn in total. This money is leaking out of the system, but is badly needed in the public sector.

In context the entire prison system costs £3bn.

His business depends on public services: roads to transport goods, police to protect property.

Being a ‘responsible capitalist’ is the right thing to do, Julian says, and he sleeps better at night.

He says trying to do the right thing has made Richer Sounds a better business...

He says we need to prove the ‘tax gap’ so the government take it seriously and the public want it addressed.

To help with this he funds @taxwatch to investigate and expose aggressive tax avoidance.

Julian wants government to simplify the tax code, so transparency is easier, and to provide more resources for “our friends at HMRC”

He says “If you knew that for every £1 invested you got £10 back you’d invest more wouldn’t you? But the government has cut money to HMRC!”

He also wants
- Stop inheritance trusts so we all pay death duty fairly
- Stop anonymous trusts purchasing property and land.
- Punish accountancy firms recommending dodgy schemes
- Have a tax register, those paying tax should have nothing to hide

For me, his remark about being a ‘responsible capitalist’ resonates strongly. It’s perfectly possible to be a successful company in the private sector and ALSO be a positive contributor to society. That’s the road we’re taking at @weareconvivio

Next up is Martin McEwan, head of tax at SSE, a FTSE-100 energy company...

He says: When you’re a big business it’s very easy to throw big numbers around. Just because a number is big, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right amount

At SSE we’ve always been very transparent, yes we pay a lot of tax, but we’re pleased to say it’s the right amount of tax

Martin says that tax shouldn’t be seen as a ‘penalty’ on profit - it’s a contribution to public services

But beyond the morality there’s actually a very good business case for paying the right amount of tax...

“We employ a lot of people we need them to be smart and skilled, which means a good education service. God forbid, if any of us are hurt or ill the health system gets them back on their feet.”

The next speaker is Hilary Jones, the Ethics Director at bath products company @LushLtd

She says it’s interesting to see surveys, but customer opinion isn’t what drives them - it’s how everyone inside the company feels about the way they work.

For customers they just want to provide good bath products. Everything else about fair trade/fair tax/etc is for themselves

A lot of this has involved fighting with their tax accountants. They have had to explain to them that they don’t want them to find ways to move things around to reduce tax, they want them to just account for tax properly.

Their founder, Mark Constantine, says he learned loads from their Japanese business. In Japan, fair tax is the normal culture. That different head state, that you should contribute to society, showed him the importance of fair tax

She says that conversely, when Mark talks to other business leaders in the UK about paying fair tax he feels like he has “I am a dick” written on his forehead. There is a wide gulf between the two cultures that needs to be bridged

Lush feel that if you’re fiddling taxes you don’t then know what is really going on in the business. You’re hiding reality.
But to run a healthy business you need to have the real picture.
So avoiding taxes is actually damaging, while taking a fair tax approach is healthy

In the Q&A I ask “on the slide summarising Pennon’s market research it showed consumers value Fair Tax, but even higher in their priorities was cheaper prices. How can ethical business address the issue of cheap unethical competitors?”...

Hilary answers: People buy cheaper products because don’t know the other costs that make them cheap. Transparency/visibility of these issues help ppl make choices other than just on price. If they see the ‘raping and pillaging’ that makes things cheap they make informed choice

... and that wraps up the morning. More from the afternoon sessions soon in this thread....