Contributions | The Savvy Senorita

The Enemy!

I am aware I am late in writing about this, but I decided I had post something just to state how shocked I am over it all.

I couldn’t believe that Starbucks hadn’t been paying corporation tax in the UK for the last 3 years!
Claiming they have actually been making loses?!

Why are they still trading then? If they are making loses then their business planning or projections must be far from correct? This alone annoys me! I had my own experience with trying to perfect these very things to please the powers that be, so I could prove I was able to begin my own business venture. I had to meet their business requirements 100% and no stone could be left unturned, including paying tax from day one of trading!

It seems it is OK for some companies to make a mess of their finances, just because they are global conglomerates with power, yet the small fish in the pond can’t put a step out of place if they want to even begin trading.

How is it fair to let these big companies slide off the radar, including for paying tax; yet, smaller new companies are constantly put through the mill?!

The UK , well I feel, hardly support small ventures enough, but that is another story.

So, tax evasion??? I am not a tax expert, but how can any company with such a huge portfolio, and presence be allowed to dodge contributing to the pot they make their profit from?? Oh, they made loses, of course! I really wish I could say I’m not paying my tax too as I have made loses. Yet, if I paid one pound less than I was supposed to there would be trouble. Not to mention, I don’t have the choice, tax returns and even tax deductions from salaries are scrutinised. Hell, I have been unlucky enough to pay too much tax; I have never paid too little, EVER, chance would be a fine thing!

Another aggrieved party.

It seems us small fish can’t get away with anything! Which poignantly highlights life for the average worker in the UK today!

The big fish can disagree with the rules and dictate that they don’t like something, because they are important as they hold the power and the wealth. Usually they get their own way as they are so revered by Government, or if not, they find a way around the problem; like disappearing to another country on-board their private yachts. Great!

The ordinary workers though just have to put up and shut up. They are too busy concentrating on keeping their little juggling balls in the air for fear of dropping them, and crashing down into oblivion. Yet, without ordinary workers there wouldn’t be any contributions into society, so why aren’t they revered and ‘cut more slack’?

It seems the ordinary workers are the ones resented and bombarded with the most demands upon them, and their money! I wish all the workers would one day decided to also ‘do a runner’ and let us see then what the UK Government would be left with, NOTHING!

As not even the giants in the UK economy; the powerful and wealthy, give a damn enough to pay their dues. So, why then should the ordinary workers have too?! Double standards; it is never what you know, but WHO you know that helps you swim not sink in the UK (regardless of what messes you make or how bad your finances are).

So, I too have decided to Boycott Starbucks. They should be ashamed depriving the UK of much needed tax money. Especially when the very people who prop up their business, their customers, are paying through the nose for everything! Including tax on the coffee they drink at Stabucks establishments! SHAME ON YOU Starbucks!

Take a look at the BBC Report:
The Starbucks Scandal

A recent report investigated claims that foreign ‘health tourists’ are able to buy their way onto UK NHS patient lists with GP surgeries.

Apparently these cases of bribery aren’t a one off, but an epidemic. BBC’s Panorama sent undercover reporters to various GP surgeries, where they posed as ‘health tourists’. These reporters subsequently managed to buy their way onto GP lists for substantial amounts of money. They were then referred to hospitals for treatment, even though their complaints were not critical emergencies.

Every health tourist who pays a GP or Health Centre to be registered is handing their money over illegally, and depriving a UK citizen of treatment. The NHS is based on entitlement; as a UK resident you have access to the system, it has nothing to do with how much cash you cough up. This illegal act is heinous enough, but the fact that it then leads to abuse of, an advantage taking of an already under-strain system, is disgusting. People wait long enough for hospital referrals, and to have treatment; even then the service is slow and poor. There is also the post code lottery to contend with; what treatment and medication received depends on where you live in the country! Yet, ‘health tourists’ don’t have this concern, but they are not even UK residents!

People in the UK pay National Insurance to be included in the health system, but they have no privileges. Why then should a health tourist?! This abuse of paying for registration to gain access to the NHS should be dealt with swiftly, before such precious resources are drained dry from the UK residents. Where are the tighter and tougher independent checks, controls and regulations for surgeries to adhere to, to prevent abuses of power? Who is checking on the NHS to make sure money isn’t being wasted and resources aren’t being misused? I mean, it is only a billion pound a year to keep the NHS ticking over, shoddy as it is; but hey that is OK, we have money and resources to waste. The NHS is open to everyone without one question being asked! It seems the NHS believes it has money to burn!

If you are not eligible for free treatment then you should be paying for it, it is that simply surely?! Yet, it is estimated that over the last 3 years health tourism has been allowed to get away with depriving the NHS of over £40 million! It is law that a person has to have been living in the UK for the last year to receive free treatment; although GP surgeries, walk in surgeries and A&E services can overlook this if the case is deemed severe, infectious or life threatening. Hospitals should check a patient’s residential status to ensure they live in the UK, but they don’t; in fact 133 Hospital Trusts didn’t check at all! A mistake, well not one to be forgiven when it has cost the country millions!

People who venture to the UK just to take advantage of what they believe to be another ‘free’ system available for them to abuse should be stopped. It is unfair to expect UK residents to continue paying into a system that is so poorly regulated, and so often abused. Would any other billion pound business be so lax in their regulations and accounts? NO! People in the UK are already paying into the system and hoping they will receive good treatment, but every year the satisfaction with service declines, as money leaks from the NHS. Now one of the reasons for such leakage has been revealed it should be fixed immediately. The NHS’s belt needs tightening, or UK residents will continue to lose out.

The sign says it all!

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© Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.