Boycott big names that avoid tax says phones billionaire

dollars. If everyone took their money offshore, we would be stony- broke.

“I guess I’m at that point in my life where I want to use my money to do my bit.”

Mr Caudwell, who was raised in a working class area of Stoke- onTrent, admitted he had tried to avoid paying tax when he founded his mobile phone business in 1987 but had a crisis of conscience.

He said: “Paying tax has been in the news a lot and personally I think it’s up to individuals and individual companies how they manage their tax affairs.

“As a businessman, I’ll admit that in the early days I did things that I probably wouldn’t do now.

“I needed my business to grow – and that included tax planning.

“But there came a point when that didn’t feel right.

“How can you preach about what is right for society and then not pay your whack to the Chancellor?”

Last month, MPs on the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee accused Amazon, Google and Starbucks of “immorally minimising their tax obligations” and demanded that the Government get a grip on large corporations.

Mr Caudwell, who is ranked 42nd in The Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £ 1.5billion, is thought to be Britain’s biggest taxpayer, handing £ 165million to the Revenue in the past four years.

He said in an interview last year: ‘ I’m proud of my country and feel very lucky to have been born in Britain.

“Some may say I’m a mug for staying. It is a colossal sum of tax to pay but I don’t want to be a tax exile.”

However, he is “deeply unhappy” at money squandered on ineffi ciency and bureaucracy in Europe.

A noted philanthropist, Mr Caudwell contributed £ 1.8million towards the wartime Bomber Command Memorial, backed by the Daily Express, which now stands in London’s Green Park.

In September he joined Prince Andrew and other fundraisers on a charity abseil down London’s Shard skyscraper, at 785ft the tallest building in Europe.

American global coffee company Starbucks has volunteered to pay £ 10million in British taxes in each of the next two years after revelations that it has paid no corporation tax here in the past three years.