Proud to pay tax
Anyone who knows Freethought knows that we strongly believe in doing the right thing. This is reflected in every facet of our business; from how we treat our customers, to the impact our business has on our environment, all the way through to how much tax we pay.
Anyone who knows Freethought knows that we strongly believe in doing the right thing. This is reflected in every facet of our business; from how we treat our customers, to the impact our business has on our environment, all the way through to how much tax we pay.
Some businesses go to great lengths to reduce their tax bill, by utilising various avoidance schemes or shuttling profit around between countries and tax havens. Normally these approaches are not in themselves technically speaking illegal, but that doesn't mean they are right or ethical.
Our view is a simple one, we want to pay as much tax as possible. If we're paying more tax, then we must be making more money, and ultimately that is what any business is meant to do surely!? We take the view that paying tax is part of our contribution to society; tax is what pays for our social care system, our healthcare, infrastructure, roads, schools, everything, indeed the very fabric of society depends on individuals and businesses paying their fair share of tax reflective of their income. Those with more income must expect to pay a larger share of the overall tax bill. It is only fair that those who are able to contribute more should do so.
We take our obligation to pay tax very seriously and are thrilled to be accredited with the Fair Tax Mark once again. Our comittment to having our tax affairs externally audited confirms publicly to everyone that we are paying a fair amount of tax reflective of our profits and that we have nothing to hide. Paying our fair share of tax is important to us, it's core to our views on conducting an ethical business, and most importantly we know it is important to our customers.
Recent polling shows that a whopping 72% of people believe that businesses that pay their fair share of tax should be celebrated, and 66% of people would rather shop with a business that pays it's fair share of tax. In fact, over three quarters of people believe that all businesses regardless of size should be forced to publish how much tax they pay. So it just goes to show, tax might not be everyones favourite topic, but it's important to people nonetheless and we are extremely pleased to publically demonstrate our comittment to paying our fair share of tax through Fair Tax Mark accreditation.
Graham Drummond
If you are interested (and why wouldn't you be?!) you can read our financial and tax information here.