McDONALD'S TAX AFFAIRS AND THE EXCHEQUER

Early day motion 865, tabled 11 March 2015 by Ian Davidson (Labour). Signed by 25 members.

That this House is gravely concerned at evidence of the aggressive tax avoidance strategies pursued by global fast-food chain McDonald's over several years up to 2013; commends the work of the worldwide coalition of trade unions and global justice campaigns that resulted in the disclosure of these findings in the Unhappy Meals report; notes that the company has potentially cost up to £818.7 million to the UK Exchequer alone in tax by diverting franchise payments to McD Europe Franchising Sàrl, a Luxembourg-resident intellectual property holding company with a Swiss branch, then shifting McDonald's European headquarters from London to Geneva for the purposes of tax avoidance; understands that this was a direct response to a tax policy change in Luxembourg allowing companies to benefit from significant reductions of their tax rate on income earned from intellectual property; further notes that McDonald's and its franchisees, which openly employ much of their workforce on zero hours contracts, earned £2,335.5 million in sales in the UK; and therefore calls on the Government to ensure that such multinational corporations are obliged to pay their fair share of tax on profits generated from UK operations.

Signatures by party: Labour 18, Independent 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Alliance 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Respect 1.