Speed camera firm pays peanuts in tax
Paid just £12,000 in tax - despite £35 million turnover
By Emma Woollacott, Feb 10, 2015 Updated: February 10, 2015 8:08 AM
facebooktwittergoogle+pinterestemail - B3FC68 gatso speed camera showing flash. Image shot 08/2008. Exact date unknown.
Alamy
British drivers are never happy to have to fork out for a speeding ticket. But it seems that the company supplying the traffic cameras doesn't much like contributing to the country's coffers either.
Accounts filed with Companies House show that RedSpeed International has paid just £12,000 in taxes since 2006, despite pulling in £35 million in turnover.
The figures were obtained by the Daily Mail, which says that the company has earned a staggering £35 million since 2006. It supplies digital traffic cameras aimed at catching drivers who speed or run red lights.
Based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, RedSpeed recently won the contract to supply and maintain 600 speed and red light safety cameras for Transport for London (TfL).
Since 2006, says the Mail, RedSpeed International has turned over more than £73 million, including £35 million in the UK, but has paid less than £12,000 in taxes here.
In 2013, it turned over £9.3 million, with more than £3.3 million coming from the UK. Despite the fact that pre-tax profit was £1.09 million, it paid no UK corporation tax - although it did pay nearly £19,000 in foreign corporation tax.
Nor did it pay any UK corporation tax in 2012.
The row comes as Labour hints that it plans to increase corporation tax from 21% to as much as 26% - the Conservatives plan to cut it to 20% in April.
But some might say the level's comparatively unimportant when so many large corporations manage to avoid or minimise their tax.
Last month, for example, an investigaation by the Sunday Mirror revealed that Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Ebay and Starbucks made £14 billion between them last year in the UK - but paid just 0.3% of that in tax.
Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK, has calculated that the total amount of tax that should be paid in the UK but isn't is now a staggering £122 billion a year.
"The tax gap matters because at £122 billion a year the tax gap is only a little less than the annual budget for the NHS. It is also big enough to cover the entire UK education budget with more than £20 billion left over," he writes.
"That should make this issue one of the highest priorities on any politician's agenda. The troubling fact is that this does not appear to be the case at present."
It seems very strange that large companies manage to avoid paying large tax bills when the Country is meant to be so short of funds? The fact that these Companies in particular are with-holding it for whatever reason is just leaving a very bitter taste!
Perhaps they feel they think they are above such matters?