McDONALD'S TAX AFFAIRS AND THE EXCHEQUER

That this House is gravely concerned at evidence of the aggressive tax avoidance strategies pursued by global fast-food chain McDonald's over several years up to 2013; commends the work of the worldwide coalition of trade unions and global justice campaigns that resulted in the disclosure of these findings in the Unhappy Meals report; notes that the company has potentially cost up to £818.7 million to the UK Exchequer alone in tax by diverting franchise payments to McD Europe Franchising Sàrl, a Luxembourg-resident intellectual property holding company with a Swiss branch, then shifting McDonald's European headquarters from London to Geneva for the purposes of tax avoidance; understands that this was a direct response to a tax policy change in Luxembourg allowing companies to benefit from significant reductions of their tax rate on income earned from intellectual property; further notes that McDonald's and its franchisees, which openly employ much of their workforce on zero hours contracts, earned £2,335.5 million in sales in the UK; and therefore calls on the Government to ensure that such multinational corporations are obliged to pay their fair share of tax on profits generated from UK operations.