Affinity Water, the UK’s largest water-only supplier, has become the 50th company to secure Fair Tax Mark accreditation, following its successful assessment against the Fair Tax Mark criteria.
According to Fair Tax Mark, an estimated £400 billion of global corporate profits are shifted annually to tax havens, with corporate tax revenue losses in the UK of approximately £7 billion per annum.
The Fair Tax Mark is an independent, not for profit community benefit society. The certification scheme was launched in 2014 and seeks to encourage and recognise organisations that pay the right amount of corporation tax, at the right time and in the right place.
As part of the accreditation process Affinity Water has improved their tax reporting, bolstered their tax strategy and progressed closure of an offshore finance subsidiary in the Cayman Islands.
Paul Monaghan, Chief Executive, Fair Tax Mark said:
“We are pleased to announce the Fair Tax Mark certification of Affinity Water and their parent Daiwater Investment Ltd – who have worked really hard over the past year to build and demonstrate their responsible tax conduct. At a time when the public is growing used to headlines about big corporates shifting profits to tax havens and minimising the contributions they make to the public purse, it’s refreshing to see a business that is proud to say what they pay.
“It’s particularly heartening to see that a small but increasing number of utilities companies are taking these issues more seriously and leading the way on tax. Many aspects of utilities provision are natural monopolies, with customers having little choice as to who supplies them. This brings with it significant profit opportunities for business, but also the responsibility to pay a fair share of tax on those profits.”
Stuart Ledger Chief Financial Officer, Affinity Water, added that as a community-focused company, the utility understood the expectations of customers and stakeholders to pay its fair share of tax. He said that the award recognised this, and the steps the utility had taken to improve the transparency of its tax affairs. “It is good corporate responsibility to operate in this way. Our activities are and have always been fully taxable in the UK.”
The Fair Tax Mark Criteria assesses the information that businesses provide in order to measure their level of transparency and the quality of their tax disclosure as well as their tax rate.
Three different criteria are used depending upon the type of business Fair Tax Mark is looking at as circumstances differ quite significantly in each case:
- Businesses that solely trade in the UK
- UK-owned multinational businesses
- Foreign-owned multinationals with subsidiaries in the UK
At present the Fair Tax Mark is only assessing companies in the first group - the other categories will be added later. The Criteria are subject to an ongoing process of development and are likely to change over time.
In December 2018 FTSE-listed Pennon Group plc, parent company of South West Water, Pennon Water Services and Viridor,became the first water services and waste management utility to secure Fair Tax Mark accreditation.
Pennon Group plc and SSE plc will co-sponsor Fair Tax Week in 2019 which will run from the 6–14 July 2019.
Click here for more information about the Fair Tax Mark
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