#UK taxpayers

[agentfascinateur]

UK's institutionalized pro-Israel lobbying:

Polak stepped down as head of CFI to take his place in the UK parliament’s unelected upper house as a Conservative peer in 2015. However, he remains the lobby group’s honorary president and registered director and is still considered to be one of the most important pro-Israel voices in Westminster.

#double dipping

#uk taxpayers

[rosignoelle]

westminster abbey currently has the highest concentration of tax-dodgers in the world ❤️

[aj-lenoire]

the coronation: approximately £100 million

one (1) guillotine: idk exactly how much but i can guarantee it’s less than £100million

[eaglesnick]

“Rethinking capitalism means rethinking the role of the public sector, the role of the private sector, the role of finance, and the relationship between them all” -  Mariana Mazzucato

Yesterday I was arguing for the creation a REAL sovereign wealth fund (SWF) to replace the “Micky Mouse” national wealth fund (NWF) created by Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer.

90 countries from across the world have a SWF whereby governments set up a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets or in such enterprises as private equity funds or hedge funds. Any profits or income generated from these investments go toward the country’s economy and its citizens.

Britain does not have a SWF. Instead we give money to private enterprise, often in the form of tax breaks, in the hope they will provide jobs or tax revenue for the British economy.  This tax revenue may or may not be greater than payments made to business and industry by the British taxpayer. This is absolute madness!

Lets take the Rosebank gas and oil field as an example of this crazy situation.

In 2024 the Norwegian state-owned Equinor company made global pre-tax profits of £24billion. The year prior to this, Equinor was given a £400million tax break by the British government.

“The Norwegian state-owned oil giant behind controversial Rosebank plans has secured £400 million from a little-known tax break from the Treasury, new analysis has revealed.” (The Scotsman: 24/1024)

According to Equinor’s own  2024 Tax Contribution Report they only paid the British government $4million in taxes on their “extractive activities”.

$4million equals just over £3million, so we, the British taxpayer, gave Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned company, £400 million in tax exemptions while they paid us a mere £3 million. I think even a 6 year old could tell that was not a good deal!

Despite this Kemi Badenoch has no intension of creating a UK SWF, preferring instead to let foreign state-owned companies invest in Britain while at the same time advocating such funds are not taxed.

“UK drops plan to tax sovereign wealth funds The FT said business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch had urged the Treasury to drop the proposals out of concern that sovereign funds might pull out of projects in Britain.”  (zawya.com: 17/03/23)

The Labour government in the meantime has created a national wealth fund that is neither fowl nor beast. It is there to encourage private investment. When you visit the National Wealth Fund web site the first heading you see is “Private sector finance” and when you click on that link you find a set of operating principles, the forth of which is:

“Investment Principle 4: The investment is expected to crowd in significant private capital over time.” 

No hint of the British taxpayer owning shares, property assets, mineral rights or anything else that generates a profit for the taxpayer. Reeve’s NWF is just a disguise for maintaining the Tory policy of subsidising business and industry at the expense of the British taxpayer.

While other countries from around the world invest their taxpayer’s money in profitable business enterprises, we continue to give our tax revenues away, regarding them as a necessary cost for "growth". This strategy clearly hasn’t worked. Our governments need to rethink.

The payment of taxpayers money to private businesses and industries should be viewed not as a cost but as an investment, an investment that expects a return for its money. 

Margaret Thatcher is often quoted as saying: "We are all capitalist's now" . Let's make that true.

[zee-man-chatter]

Easy decision VS. tough decision...

Always lots of money for Ukraine(arms industry), but a lot of foot stomping and heavy thought goes before giving money to taxpayers and veterans. It's sickening.

[vryivs]

I always forget that monarchists exist and then I see someone with the username duchessofmyheartforever or williamisababe posting about how it's mean to giggle at an ultrarich economic leech experiencing just a fraction of struggle and inconvenience (because lets be honest, he probably wont kick the bucket—his doctors are paid to keep his corpse animated long after it ceases to be humane)

[towerblockers]

Labour’s Private Jet Problem: £2 Million in Flights After Criticising Tories

Labour’s Private Jet Problem: £2 Million in Flights After Criticising Tories Labour’s pledge to be a government of transparency and accountability is off to a turbulent start—literally. UK DOGE has pored over recent Labour transparency returns, uncovering that ministers have racked up over £2 million in private jet expenses within just three months of taking office. The irony? These are the same…

[terminally-spooked]

If you can vote in the UK, hate the tories, haven't voted yet and don't know who to vote for

May I humbly direct you to this site for advice on who you can tactically vote for to ensure we finally get rid of the bastards after 14 years of pain and austerity

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

king charles has been announced to have cancer and all i can think about is the money that would have to go to the funeral and coronation. it makes me feel sick, the cost of doing the whole fucking rigamarole again.

[melrosing]

my sister and I once got into a physical fight over food in a hotel room when we were both preteens. We swore to our parents we’d push the other off the balcony but then by nighttime we were sharing a bed playing on our Nintendo wearing matching PJ’s. We also used to bite each other when kids. But speaking of siblings what’s your opinions on prince harry and William. Not a royalist all I know is harry from invutus games and William does a lot of work with homeless people so I was interested on your thoughts. I do like Meghan and Kate though.

lmao I love this has become a confessional booth for past sisterly disputes ❤️ Sansa and Arya fighting over the Trident incident, meanwhile me n my sis going with the same fire over a stolen bagel

on the royals…. ngl I am born and raised anti-royalist lol, I’m going to my parents for the coronation weekend and they’ve promised we’ll be leaving the house to go walk in the wilderness so we don’t have to hear a damn thing about Charlie’s hat ceremony. I have huge sympathy for what Meghan went through at the hand of that family and this absolute nightmare country and I wish she and her children all the best, but the institution itself I would like to disintegrate x

[vicshush]

[ID: A photo of a large postbox (looking similar to a red, municipal garbage canister [ty @poniatowskaja for the clarification]) on a sidewalk. The top has four beefeater royal guard dolls on top of a wide purple fabric with gold crowns covering a shallow dome. A bunting of triangles in red, white, and blue with gold crowns hangs around the brim of the shallow dome lid of the bin. Article tags, headline, summary, the author's byline, and the opening to the article are below: "King Charles coronation [subject tag]. Welsh town canceled coronation party after no one donates to costs. Caldicot group had planned to hold street celebration but crowdfunder 'failed to raise any money whatsoever'. Steven Morris [author]. Friday, 5 May, 2023. It had been billed as "the party of the year", but a Welsh market town has been forced to cancel its coronation celebration after failing to raise any money to cover costs." / end ID]

Lmao

[lexlawuk]

Mullens v HMRC: £40 Million Tax Dispute

The legal face-off between Stephen Mullens and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) unfolded, centring on approximately £40 million in payments and the critical question of whether these funds constituted taxable income or non-taxable gifts. HMRC alleged tax avoidance and fraudulent omissions in self-assessment returns, leading to a penalty assessment and a rigorous HMRC investigation under Section 36 of…

[eaglesnick]

“The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have” – Leonard Nimoy

Of the hundreds of executive orders signed in recent days by President Trump, the establishment of the first-ever US sovereign wealth fund (SWF) caught my attention.

A sovereign wealth fund is a:

“state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as private equity funds or hedge funds. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally."  (Wikipedia 05/02/25)

These investments pay dividends to the governments of the countries that own the shares, who in turn pass this on to their citizens.

We are told that economic growth is the core concern of the Labour Government and to that end they have fulfilled their manifesto promise to establish a National Wealth Fund (NWF) to help boost the economy.  The terms NWF and SWF are often used interchangeably but this is a mistake. They are not the same thing.

Many countries have a SWF. China has the biggest, with a massive $2750bn investment portfolio. Following closely behind is the UEA with $2304bn. Norway, the largest European SWF holder has $1555bn in assets, while Australia has a $257bn SWF. As of 2024, 90 countries worldwide had a SWF of some sort.

The Chinese SWF holds dividend paying shares in a variety of international companies including, the Bank of America, Deutch Bank and Morgan Stanley. It has a 10% share in Heathrow airport, owns 9% of Thames Water, valued at £1.3bn, a 49% share in Neptune Energy, a UK business worth £1.3bn, and a 90% stake in another UK company, Logicor, worth £9.7bn

The Norwegian SWF also holds shares in a number of UK Corporations including a “significant” holding of BP shares as well as shares in AstraZenica, HSBC and GlaxoSmithKline.

This week we have witnessed a massive row between the Labour Government and those who want to see the Rosebank oil and gas field opened up for further development. Those on the right have argued it is essential for the security of Britain’s oil and gas reserves and for the economy that Rosebank be exploited to the full – the Trumpian  "drill baby drill” approach. Utter nonsense!

“Rosebank is 80% owned by oil and gas giant Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government… The last 20% is owned by Israeli firm Ithaca Energy.” (stopcambo.org.uk: 26/02/24)

The Rosebank oil and gas field may provide jobs for UK workers but it also provides jobs for Norwegians and workers from other countries. What Rosebank oil and gas extraction does not do is provide UK energy security, as the Norwegians sell it on the international market. Neither does it provide a revenue stream for the UK government. In short,  Rosebank oil and gas are sold to the highest bidder to maximise profits for Equinor who then pay dividends to the Norwegian Government.

Putting aside the fact that the development of Rosebank will not produce energy security or an income for Britain other than in the form of jobs and licence fees, why on earth do the British not own shares in British oil and gas fields?

While foreign states from across the world have been investing in overseas companies as well as their own home grown businesses, the UK and America have been foolishly wedded to the neo-liberal economic doctrines of Reagan and Thatcher who believed free-markets and privatisation were the answer to all economic woes not State investment. How wrong they turned out to be.

When Reeves announced the creation of the UK National Wealth Fund Sky News said:

“Such funds aim for a financial return on the money they put in for future generations to fuel further state spending.”  (09/07/24)

But Sky, and many other commentators since, were confusing NWF with SWF. The two are not the same.

SWF are set up to make money for the country in the form of share ownership and dividends. A NWF is more limited in scope, usually set up to support  specific national objectives such as infra structure development. NWF do not necessarily expect a financial return for investing taxpayer’s money. A SWF does.

It is time to demand that UK governments receive a return for investing taxpayer’s money. If Government gives money to corporations for development is it really too much to ask for something in return? Perhaps shares to the value of what was invested? 

According to RIFT, for financial year 2023/24 14.4% of UK tax revenue went to business and industry in the form of grants, subsidies, development funds and so forth. . The taxpayer gets no direct finical return for this investment. Corporation tax, the amount paid by businesses and industry, only made up 4.6% of total tax revenue collected so business and industry are net gainers when it comes to taxation: they receive more in free government funding than they pay in corporation tax.

This is completely unacceptable. While the rest of the world is busy buying up British businesses via their SWF we the British taxpayer are quite literally paying them to do so.

These figures comparing the UK’s NWF returns to those of the Norwegian SWF tell it all.

“The Company (UK NWF) returned a loss of £82.2 million before taxation in the year.”  (National Wealth Fund Limited (Formerly known as UK Infrastructure Bank Limited) Annual Report and Accounts 2023–2024 For the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024)

By contrast:

“Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Hits Record $222B Profit In 2024 Driven By Equity Investments.”  (Forbes: 29/01/25)

If British governments are really interested in raising the living standards of ordinary working people and not just the bank balances of the already rich, then they should start investing UK taxpayer’s money rather than simply giving it away.  We live in a capitalist society so our  government should start to act like capitalists and demand a return for our investments..

[aeolianblues]

honestly geolocking is so fucked up. What do you mean I can’t access streams when I’m not in the country. I still pay taxes here. Why does a streaming service get preference over the fact that I’m a taxpayer