UK Uncut is holding its day of action against Starbucks today, with more than 40 demonstrations across the country in the chain’s coffee shops. The group’s sit-ins aim to highlight the chain’s tax avoidance strategy which has led to it paying just £8.5m in corporation tax since 1998, despite sales of £3bn in the UK.
While it’s not a bad thing that tax avoidance is moving up the agenda, there are probably more fruitful ways that those irritated by tax avoidance can spend their time, rather than making life a bit awkward for some poor barista who has no involvement in their employer’s tax affairs. It’s worth reading this debate between City AM’s Allister Heath and UK Uncut’s Ellie Mae O’Hagan, where Heath, while accepting that UK Uncut’s ‘protests have been very successful’, points to the real root of the Starbucks problem.
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