People in the UK Are Pissed at Starbucks
Starbucks is very good at making itself easy to hate. The company has over 20,000 locations in 61 countries around the world, yet still can't make a good cup of joe (at least according to us coffee snobs). The Seattle-born chain also — despite loads of money — can't seem to bring the price of that below-average coffee down. And then there's those absurd names, that make even the most humble customer sound pretentious when they make their order. But for United Kingdom residents, the main complaint about Starbucks — at least for now — goes back to the boatloads of money. Because for all the cash the company has been making with its UK locations, very little of that has reached the UK's government in the form of taxes.
In tax filings released a couple years ago, Starbucks admitted to having raked in about $1.4 billion in sales over the past 14 years. During that time, however, the company has only paid about $3 million in taxes. In fact, the company reported losses during the last two years, which significantly reduced the amount it had to pay in taxes. The announcement has sparked an anti-Starbucks attitude across the nation.
In response to the filings and consumer outrage, Starbucks' Kris Engskov, its managing director of Starbucks UK, pledged "a significant amount of tax during 2013 and 2014, regardless of whether the company is profitable." The announcement, however, was only greeted with more annoyance from UK residents. Stephen Williams, Treasury spokesman for the UK's Liberal Democrats party, said that the lack of payment and then the "Oh, here's a payment!" move by Starbucks showed how corporations can do whatever they want.
"It is extraordinary," Williams told BBC News. "People have been joking that some of these multinationals seem to think that paying tax is voluntary. Well Starbucks have just confirmed the joke really. Tax is something that is a legal obligation that you should pay according to the tax rules of a particular country. It's not a charitable donation in order to gain sort of brand value. But that seems to be what Starbucks are doing."
UK Uncut, a grassroots campaign that seeks to highlight their government's shaky tax laws, decided to harness some of that anger. Uncut organized protests in front of 45 Starbucks locations across the UK. In all, about 1,000 protesters stood and handed out pamphlets and chanted things like "Starbucks - pay your taxes! Starbucks sucks money from the UK! Boycott Starbucks - tell your friends!"
The late payment promised by Starbucks has seemingly done nothing to calm the fire. In fact, it has only made people more angry. But will anything change for the UK Starbucks? They will surely pay more taxes, but when the government loses so much money each year, can such a little amount of taxes from such a big company keep people calm? It remains to be seen. In the meantime, here's hoping people go somewhere else for over-priced, bad coffee.
[Pic via Flickr - hirotomo t]
