Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TWO of Kellogg’s biggest UK arms paid no corporation tax while raking in £900million in sales last year.
Kellogg Company of Great Britain and Kellogg Marketing and Sales made combined profits of £40million in 2016.
But losses from other parts of the huge firm slashed their UK corporation tax bill to zero.
The accounts highlight the complex web of businesses that US giant Kellogg’s, famed for its Corn Flakes, Frosties and Rice Krispies, operates.
Accounts filed at Companies House show turnover for the Kellogg Company of Great Britain was £128million last year, with a profit of £18million – before it was wiped out by losses from elsewhere.
The other big division’s turnover dipped to £773million yet profits jumped to £22million... before they were cancelled out by losses transferred from other parts of the group. Its ultimate parent company is an offshoot of Kellogg’s in Luxembourg, known for its low tax rates.
Kellogg’s UK and Ireland said: “We pay all corporate tax according to the laws of the countries in which we operate.” The firm’s tax affairs are legal.
It came as controversial taxihailing app Uber published its accounts for the UK.
They showed sales rose 59% to £36.9million last year, and profits rose from £1.8million to £3million – on which it paid £551,174 corporation tax. But the figures only relate to operations such as marketing and driver recruitment in the UK. The remainder flows to Uber’s offshoot in the Netherlands.
Uber said: “While we recorded a profit here, globally we are not yet profitable.”
But Professor Prem Sikka, tax expert at the University of Essex, said: “There is a game that is being played. There should be no hiding place when it comes to tax.”
HARDWORKING Brits who pay their income tax are right to question why the multinational cereal giant Kellogg’s, with sales of more than £900million last year, is allowed to pay no corporation tax here.
This is about fairness and morality, not legality. The firm will be making a very big, very public mistake if it hides behind a complex web of international offshoots to try to defend what for many honest strivers is indefensible.
Big firms like Kellogg’s benefit directly and indirectly from public services in Britain.
We must force it and others, such as Amazon and Facebook, to pay their fair share.