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Shell plans to move headquarters to the UK


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19 minutes ago, stewarty said:

Is this because of Brexit or because Shell are trying to wriggle away from their obligations to reduce GHG emissions?

 

 

Nah, it is probably mainly to do with there being no incentive to remain in the Netherlands as their low corporation tax breaks are coming to an end - you will probably see more companies leaving Ireland for the same reason. Ireland is expected to lose more than €2bn a year in tax due to the change. 

 

The deal involves more than just the G20 nations—worldwide, it’s 136 countries in total. The new 15% tax would apply to the overseas profits of multinational companies whose annual sales are at least €750 million (about $868 million). It’s worth noting that, in theory anyway, governments can still set whatever absurdly low corporate tax rate they want. The deal just makes it so companies’ home countries can now force them to pay the difference. The point is to discourage big corporations like Apple or Bristol Myers Squibb from skirting local taxes by relocating to low-rate tax havens like Ireland or the Netherlands.

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1 hour ago, stewarty said:

Is this because of Brexit or because Shell are trying to wriggle away from their obligations to reduce GHG emissions?

 

 

Is there evidence that Shell are doing any wriggling?

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1 hour ago, ChelseaBoy said:

Nah, it is probably mainly to do with there being no incentive to remain in the Netherlands as their low corporation tax breaks are coming to an end - you will probably see more companies leaving Ireland for the same reason. Ireland is expected to lose more than €2bn a year in tax due to the change. 

 

The deal involves more than just the G20 nations—worldwide, it’s 136 countries in total. The new 15% tax would apply to the overseas profits of multinational companies whose annual sales are at least €750 million (about $868 million). It’s worth noting that, in theory anyway, governments can still set whatever absurdly low corporate tax rate they want. The deal just makes it so companies’ home countries can now force them to pay the difference. The point is to discourage big corporations like Apple or Bristol Myers Squibb from skirting local taxes by relocating to low-rate tax havens like Ireland or the Netherlands.

Tax efficiency is no doubt a factor, but the Dutch courts ordering them to reduce emissions seems more significant.  The optics for a Dutch company doing this, activist shareholders trying to force change and the general trend towards ESG among other governance challenges… seems like a lot going on in the business and I shall be interested to see how it goes.   

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2 hours ago, stewarty said:

Is this because of Brexit or because Shell are trying to wriggle away from their obligations to reduce GHG emissions?

 

 

They’re not coming because of Brexit. The point is that whatever their reason, Brexit hasn’t deterred them. We were told there would be an exodus and no company would want to come into pariah state Britain.

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28 minutes ago, stewarty said:

Tax efficiency is no doubt a factor, but the Dutch courts ordering them to reduce emissions seems more significant.  The optics for a Dutch company doing this, activist shareholders trying to force change and the general trend towards ESG among other governance challenges… seems like a lot going on in the business and I shall be interested to see how it goes.   

Yes it will be interesting to see the direction of a number of companies, especially the US Corps that are currenyly enjoying tax breaks in Ireland until the recent ruling by the EU commission got them to cough up, even though Ireland was reluctant to collect it. 

 

With Shell however, they are Anglo Dutch with an already considerable presence in the UK and having its primary listing on the LSE, so it will take very little to move. 

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