A few weeks ago in his speech to the Prince’s Trust Leadership Groups, Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP used a quote “Doing good is good for business”. I can’t find the source, but in the search found this one from Mark Twain - “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
The debate about corporate taxes is gathering pace. Indeed we wrote about it again last week. Government alters procurement policy to tackle tax ‘non compliance’. I’ve had a huge post bag on the subject with views of all shades. It’s also a subject that we at TechMarketView have to handle with some care as most of the IT companies quoted are customers!
There is a view that all companies must minimise the tax they pay on behalf of their shareholders. Others will say that as long as companies keep within the law, then everything is OK.
I don’t buy either of those arguments.
As I have stated many times in HotViews, I owe a great debt to Britain which provided me (and my family) with an education, has looked after our health from cradle to grave, has protected us from our foes and many other benefits. Providing those benefits has to be paid for and, as long as taxes are fair, I am happy to pay them. Although I have been offered every scam around to ‘minimise’ my taxes, I have not taken any of them. I haven’t gone offshore (as many have), I haven’t flipped my houses (as many have done), I haven’t setup complex trading structures either. I’ve had three tax enquiries in 20 years with not a penny of tax owing at the end of any of them.
One of the major downsides of the wave of overseas takeovers of UK IT companies over the last 30 years is that in every case the acquiring overseas company ends up paying less tax in the UK than when the company was UK HQed. It also ends up taking on fewer entry-level staff, fewer graduates, using less UK-based advisory services etc. That is just plain wrong.
About 10 years ago, all publicly quoted companies were forced to disclose their political and charitable contributions along with their CSR policies. No rule was brought in forcing any particular policy but the mere requirement to report changed behaviour. Political donations declined and charitable contributions by corporates increased quite significantly. Companies did not wish to state ‘We give £10m to the Tory party but nothing to any UK charities” even though to do so was perfectly legal.
My own view is that just asking about such things as taxes paid, avoidance schemes used, UK entry-level job created etc will change behaviour – to the good. The Indian players are already starting to think about entry level job creation in the UK – and not before time.
Most of you know of my long involvement with the Prince’s Trust. Although I believe passionately in what it does, I have to be honest and say that my involvement with the charity has been ‘good for business too’. The same applies to TechmarketView's current Little British Battlers programme. I think one of the reasons that TechMarketView is held in such high regard is that many of you think (well, you often tell us) that we are a force for good too.
I think many will also find that “Doing good is good for business”.