The coronavirus pandemic must finally create a society where it’s wrong not to pay your fair share

After coronavirus, when governments need their money back, you can say goodbye to tax havens. The very richest will need to be squeaky clean or risk being shunned and loathed, writes Chris Blackhurst

Friday 22 May 2020 12:47 BST
Comments
Even before corona struck, the pressure to try and bridge the inequality gap was intense. With the outbreak, it has ratcheted up several notches
Even before corona struck, the pressure to try and bridge the inequality gap was intense. With the outbreak, it has ratcheted up several notches

We are living in rapidly changing times. This week saw publication of the annual Sunday Times Rich List with its attendant media blitz. The wealthy, though, were also making other headlines, and for all the wrong reasons.

Matalan founder John Hargreaves is bringing a legal action against his accountants PwC for what he maintains was poor advice that he could relocate to Monaco, thus avoiding £200m in capital gains and income taxes on the sale of shares in the business. He maintains PwC also said he could continue to work at the company’s Liverpool head office three days a week and sleep at his UK house. PwC is resisting the claim.

Accompanying this news was Hargreaves’s appearance in the Rich List, at £550m. There was another piece of information, too, that Matalan has furloughed more than 11,000 staff, as well as deferring tax and national insurance payments and accessing the 12-month business rates exemption worth over £40m. The retailer has also asked its lenders to borrow £50m as part of the Covid-19 large business interruption loan scheme, which sees the government guarantee 80 per cent on each bank loan.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in