Starbucks 'paid just £8.6m UK tax in 14 years'

US coffee giant Starbucks reportedly paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in the UK over 14 years.

The four-month investigation by news agency Reuters also found the firm had paid nothing in the last three years.

It found Starbucks had generated over £3bn in UK sales since 1998 but had paid less than 1% in corporation tax.

"We have paid and will continue to pay our fair share of taxes in full compliance with all UK tax laws, as we always have," Starbucks said.

"There has been no suggestion by any authority that we are anything but compliant and good tax payers.

"We do this in a way that is consistent with the values that have guided us since we were founded more than 40 years ago: balancing our need to operate a profitable business with a social conscience."

But campaigner Richard Murphy from Tax Research UK, who was consulted by the Reuters team as part of its investigation, said: "Starbucks are playing the game here. This is tax avoidance, they're doing nothing illegal. That doesn't mean to say it's right, in my opinion," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

He said it showed that the current rules on tax did not work and it was up to politicians to put it right.

"When we have a tax system that lets very large companies like Starbucks be on our High Street and pay no tax and are competing with small locally owned businesses who are paying tax on all their profits, then there's something very clearly wrong with our tax system."

Asked about Starbucks' tax bills, the prime minister's spokeswoman said the government would not comment on any specific case.

According to the Reuters investigation, Starbucks generated £398m in UK sales last year but paid no corporation tax.

In comparison, rival Costa recorded sales of £377m in the UK last year, and paid £15m in tax, or 31% of its profits.

Starbucks is not alone though, in facing criticism for its low tax bill.

Last week Facebook was criticised for paying just £238,000 in tax last year in the UK despite estimates of making £175m in sales, while earlier this year Google was also criticised for paying just £6m tax on UK revenues of £395m.

In April, a report in the Guardian said that online retailer Amazon had generated sales of more than £7.6bn in the UK over the past three years but had not paid any corporation tax on the profits from those sales.

Labour MP and tax campaigner Michael Meacher said Starbucks' practice was "profoundly against the interests of the countries where they operate and is extremely unfair".

"They are trying to play the taxman, game him. It is disgraceful," he said.

A spokesman for HMRC said: "For legal reasons, we cannot comment on the tax affairs of individual businesses, but we make sure that multinationals pay the right tax to the UK in accordance with UK tax law."