Starbucks UK hit the headlines after it emerged that it had been loss-making for more than a decade. That was despite telling its global investors that the UK was a thriving profit centre. The reason, apparently, was tax; cash came out of the UK company to Dutch and Swiss subsidiaries - for royalties, licensing and coffee -in an apparent attempt to reduce UK profits. The coffee chain has paid just ￡8.6m in corporation tax since 1998. But is it true? Starbucks, its defenders argue, does not make any profits in the UK anyway; and has made perfectly acceptable commercial decisions as to where to locate its operations.
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