According to Mark Graham’s blog, Starbucks’s tax issue becomes a popular topic that people would like to discuss. Starbucks as one of the most popular US coffee supplier only paid $8.6m UK tax in the past 14 years, which really “surprise” everyone. In his article, Mark points that there is no prove can suggest that Starbucks did something illegal, what they essentially do is transferring money between itself and just paying their fair share tax without cooperate tax. Starbucks have a huge impact in the coffee market, which means if they continue pay less tax on their profit, local small coffee company will have a tough time compete with this international large company.
Similar to Mark’s perspective, I would say, as a successful business company which is defined as business ethics, Starbucks can not only concerns the profit of shareholders, but also stakeholders. According to the article, though Starbucks pay less tax than other coffee brand, but the quality of its coffee is even less than other coffee brands. Starbucks do successfully run an international company and achieve the reputation from almost all over the world, even cause the monopoly within the market, in a long-term consideration, it still need to improve their products to meet the requirement of customers. Last but not least, UK government should consummate the tax policy to prevent the cutthroat competition within business industry. Situations like Starbucks company will bring damage to local coffee brands if continue using tax policy.
Sources:
Mark Graham’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/markgraham/2014/09/09/starbucks-and-their-creative-tax-plan/
External sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19967397
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