On 01/12/2013 13:00, fabian(a)unpopular.org.uk wrote:
The issue which was raised was the reputation of the
charity, not the cost
of the vouchers.
Bear in mind that WMF received £2M from Google in 2010 which falls within
the period covered by the Public Accounts Committee report on Google
published this summer:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/…
The companys highly contrived tax arrangement has no purpose other than
to enable the company to avoid UK corporation tax.
Googles reputation has been damaged by these revelations of aggressive
tax avoidance. That damage will not be repaired until the company arranges
to pay its fair share of tax in the country where it earns the profits
from the business it conducts."
So, the Wikimedia movement in general, through this donation to the WMF
can be seen as benefiting from Tax Avoidance.
Tax avoidance isn't illegal. Companies and people are well within its
rights to minimise their tax liability to the extent the law let them.
If you believe certain practise is unacceptable, then contact your MP
and or petition the government to change the law to make it illegal (or
run for parliament etc).
--
Katie Chan
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Experience is a good school but the fees are high.
- Heinrich Heine
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