Unilever embroiled in £550m tax row

MARMITE a nd Dove soap maker Unilever is facing allegations that it underpaid hundreds of millions of pounds in tax.

Bosses at the AngloDutch giant are challenging the claim, but admit that it could cost the firm up to €600 million (£550 million).

The dispute with Revenue & Customs comes after FTSE 100-listed Unilever – which makes a huge range of consumer goods i ncluding Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Magnum ice creams – abandoned a plan to ditch its UK headquarters.

It is alleged that Unilever owes the taxman money because its Dutch arm had a ‘ permanent establishment’ in the UK, meaning it should have paid more tax here.

Unilever ‘strongly disagrees with the positions t aken by t he UK t ax authorities’. The company is thought to be confident it can bat away the allegations because its tax arrangements have been unchallenged by the UK for many years.

As well as having listings in London and Amsterdam, Unilever has one headquarters in the UK capital and another in Rotterdam. The structure has existed since 1930 when Dutch margarine company Unie merged with British soap maker Lever Brothers.

In 2018, it attempted to make Rotterdam its sole HQ and Euronext Amsterdam its primary stock market l i sting. But it abandoned the move amid opposition from politici ans, t he media and investors.

Unilever declined to comment. HMRC did not comment on the case.