TAX ON THE STARK SIDE
Cinema giant Odeon has paid just £625,000 in corporation tax since 2010 – despite raking in £63million in profit. Accounts for its main UK arm show profits doubled to £19m last year alone on sales of £235m, helped by blockbusters like Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But it expects to pay no corporation tax for 2017. The company said that was because it pumped more than £30m into converting seven cinemas into its new Luxe format, creating hundreds of jobs. Firms can use “capital allowances” on this kind of investment to reduce what they pay in corporation tax. That is very different from when it was private equity owned, when interest on it mountain of debt reduced tax bill. It has paid corporation t in just two years since 201 during which time it has generated £1.5billion of turnover. Odeon’s UK and Europe arms were bought for in 2016 nearly £1bn by US cinema goliath AMC Entertainment, which is owned by Chinese billiona Wang Jianlin. A spokesman said: “The corporation tax we paid in 2017 was low as a direct result of this significant investment programme.”