Corporate Benefit Scroungers – like Amazon have brought our country to its knees.

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In the US, Amazon will pay zero tax on $11.2BN dollars in profit for 2018 .  In the UK in 2018 Amazon corporation tax  halved despite tripling of profits in the UK. While Amazon and firms like them, make billions from this country but don’t pay fair tax, our NHS and safety net are in crisis, people are dying needlessly, and freezing on our streets. Small businesses are finding it difficult to keep afloat with such unfair competition with high costs of rent and rates. I agree with Jeremy Corbyn that this is immoral, and I am pleased this is something which Labour will put an end to.

Tory ideology has always been about hand outs to the wealthy paid out to by the poor. While right-wing propaganda has sought to demonise vulnerable people, labelling disabled, sick and people made homeless from misfortune as scroungers, the reality is that firms, like Amazon, Asda and so many others are the real benefit scroungers.

The Hidden Welfare state.,( Think Left) 2013  described how in the UK has two welfare states.  There is one that is reported and endlessly discussed, and another, which is rarely mentioned.  Whilst the first is suffering enormous cuts under the Tory/LD coalition, the other just keeps expanding. The corporate welfare budget arises from four main sources:

  • Paying little or no tax – Tax havens
  • Tax breaks
  • Enjoying huge subsidies
  • Removal of employment and environmental protection regulations

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‘Fewer people may have killed themselves after a work-capability assessment if Alphabet (Google) had not registered its offices in Bermuda, and the downward pressure on benefits payments was not so intense.’

Recent studies show that the UK and territories are the ‘greatest enabler of tax avoidance.’  No wonder the Tories and establishment are desperate to keep a Labour government from power. It is the ultra-rich who are set to lose out, and the British people who are set to gain what they have worked for.

Why do people seem to care more about ‘benefit scroungers than billions lost to the rich”? The corporate ownership and control of the media has manipulated the mindset.  The framing of the supposed need for austerity was reinforced by the media. The austerity policies by the Coalition government are widely now known to have been a political choice, and unnecessary, yet it has been continued to be policy, and deepened, such that vital NHS services are at critical levels, such as they have never been seen before. The Tory government is deliberately underfunding the NHS so that it is failing, so that they can sell it off cheaply to US Insurance companies, claiming to ‘rescue’ it, and then make a killing from speculating on the stock market.

Social Security: Social Security Payments are at their lowest levels EVER since the launch of the Welfare State.

NHS : The NHS is imploding as figures show the  worst A and E performance figures EVER , while nine out of ten NHS bosses are saying staffing at critical levels is endangering patients.

Education: Breaking up of Local Education Authorities (LEAS), and open up to Academy Chains, has been ‘back door’ privatisation of the state education system. Wakefield Schools Academy Trust      ran 21 schools in Yorkshire. Schools in Yorkshire that transferred millions of pounds to a multi-academy trust before it went bust will not get the money back, the area’s schools commissioner has confirmed.

Meanwhile companies such as Amazon are making enormous sums of money globally. They are siphoning off wealth produced by workers in the UK and everywhere. Basically, they are profiting while someone else does the work. We are being taken for a ride. I can’t help but think of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It is much the same on a global scale. Amazon’s Corporation Tax has been halved despite their UK profits tripling this year . These companies are profiting across the planet, and are not paying their fair way anywhere.

In the US, Kristin Myers   reports on US Firms failing to pay tax. “Amazon have paid zero tax on billions of  $. While some people have received some surprise tax bills when filing their returns, corporations continue to avoid paying tax — thanks to a cocktail of tax credits, loopholes, and exemptions.

Revelations about Amazon’s tax liability come despite President Trump’s very public criticisms of Amazon and Bezos for not paying enough tax. The president had promised his new tax law would end special interest breaks and close loopholes, but it’s clear that isn’t the case, says Wamhoff. But if anyone thinks that Amazon is alone, they would be wrong. Last week, Netflix also did not pay American federal or state income taxes according to a separate ITEP report, despite posting record profits. Netflix has disputed those findings, while ITEP claims that the $131 million paid by Netflix is taxes on foreign income. And historically Wamhoff says, this story is nothing new. Several corporations have avoided paying federal income tax throughout the years, he says. “These companies have been consistently profitable,” he explained. “And they should really be paying taxes.”