Protesters tell coffee chain to ‘pay its fair share’ in taxes

The US-owned giant said it expects to pay about £10m in corporation tax for each of the next two years, following the revelation that it paid just £8.6m in 14 years of trading in the UK and nothing in the last three years.

Activist group UK Uncut said it was planning more than 40 demonstrations across the country, “transforming” Starbucks stores into refuges, creches and homeless shelters.

The anti-cuts direct action group said the number of protests planned for today had increased since Starbucks made its announcement.

UK Uncut said it also wanted to highlight the “disproportionate” impact of the Government’s spending cuts on women.

Sarah Greene, a UK Uncut activist, said: “It is an outrage that the Government continues to let multinationals like Starbucks dodge millions in tax while cutting vital services like refuges, creches and rape crisis centres.

“It does not have to be this way. The Government could easily bring in billions that could fund vital services by clamping down.”

Hannah Pearce, a UK Uncut supporter, said that offering to pay some tax “if and when it suits” does not stop a firm being a tax avoider, adding: “This is just a desperate attempt by Starbucks to deflect public pressure – hollow promises on press releases don’t fund women’s refuges or child benefits.”

She called on the Government to force Starbucks and other tax avoiding firms to “pay their fair share, instead of cutting welfare and tax credits for single mums and disabled women”.

A spokesman from Global Women’s strike, one of the women’s groups supporting the action, said: “Women – in families, homes, communities and jobs – bear the brunt of austerity. Already, 3.5 million children live in poverty, one in five mothers skips a meal to feed her children, and many walk miles to get food handouts because they can’t afford the bus fare.”

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which is supporting the protests, said: “With hundreds of thousands of public sector workers having their jobs, pay and pensions cut, and people entitled to benefits being demonised and targeted in the most shameful way, it is utterly scandalous that some multinational companies believe they can get away with contributing little or nothing to our economy.