Britannia Radio

There’s so much turmoil around at the moment that when on e of the 
world’s giant advertising agencies clears off to Ireland most people 
don’t notice!  It follows the world’s 3rd largest pharmaceuticals 
company.

This is entirely due to the complete incompetence and intransigeance 
of the Brown-Darling duopoly.

Meanwhile:- “Sterling puts in worst performance for 15 years
Sterling put in its worst intra-day performance against the dollar 
for fifteen years while the euro also suffered as banking bail-outs 
in the UK and Europe put pressure on the pound and the single currency.
The pound fell 2 per cent to $1.8022 against the dollar, its largest 
single session drop since 1993, while the euro lost 1.2 per cent to 
$1.4346, with the dollar also rising on hopes of progress in the US 
government’s rescue plan to bail out the country’s stricken financial 
system.”  (FT)

Christina   aka Cassandra
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FINANCIAL TIMES   29.9.08
WPP to move tax domicile to Ireland
    By Andrew Parker and George Parker

A dispute between business and the UK government over its tax 
treatment of multinationals is set to deepen this week when WPP, the 
world’s second-largest advertising agency, announces plans to shift 
its British headquarters to Ireland.

WPP is expected to say it is moving its tax domicile from the UK 
because of the threat of a markedly higher British corporation tax 
bill. WPP would be the latest UK-based group to shift its domicile – 
or to consider doing so – because of complaints about the British tax 
system’s waning competitiveness.

Shire, the UK’s third-largest pharmaceuticals company, and United 
Business Media, the British publisher, decided in April to move their 
headquarters to Ireland for tax reasons.

Many UK-based multinationals claim too much of their foreign profits 
fall into the British tax net under rules against tax avoidance. 
Ireland, which does not have similar rules, is proving an attractive 
option.

WPP fears its annual UK corporation tax bill, which came to £204.3m 
in 2007, could be increased by tens of millions because of expected 
Treasury tax changes.

WPP, which is engaged in a hostile takeover bid for TNS, the UK 
market research company, said: “An announcement regarding proposed 
changes of domicile is likely to be forthcoming in the next week.”

The UK Treasury last year proposed exempting multinationals’ foreign 
profits from tax. However, it also proposed a crackdown on 
multinationals’ tax avoidance through its “controlled foreign 
companies” legislation.

A backlash prompted Alistair Darling, UK finance minister, to drop 
the anti-avoidance measures in July, but the government said an 
amended reform had not been ruled out. The UK Treasury said that it 
was discussing its ideas on the taxation of foreign profits with 
interested companies.
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