Only 6% of people would trust a company to provide accurate information on whether they were paying the right amount of tax – 43% would trust an independent accreditation such as the Fair Tax Mark (second behind HMRC at 47%)
Excellent, so, everyone not being prosecuted by HMRC for not paying the right amount of tax can be trusted to be paying the correct amount then.
To a greater degree of accuracy than the Fair Tax Mark.
Good, glad we’ve got that sorted.
Murphy seems more and more desperate to plug the Fair Tax Mark at every Fair Tax Mark opportunity he gets to mention the Fair Tax Mark which as followers of The Fair Tax Mark will know is a Fair Tax Mark designed to give a Mark of Tax Fairness to those companies which pass the Fair Tax Mark test.
Fair Tax Mark.
Results from a survey commissioned by SSE, who have the Fair Tax Mark, so that they have something to justify them having the Fair Tax Mark when they issue a press release publicising that they have the Fair Tax Mark.
Or is that just neoliberal sophistry?
Fair Tax Mark.
How many companies have a Fair Tax Mark? After two years in existence, it’s around a dozen, right? Can’t find a list on their website.
@Blue Burmese
I think there is a ‘case studies’ section on the website and that, pretty much, is how many companies have the Fair Tax Mark. F – All basically including a coupe of one man band companies.
All these surveys are bollocks anyway. It’s like asking whether people think there should be more or less litter in the streets and then announcing that the survey proves that 99% of people think there is too much litter in the streets.
How about a survey that asks the public whether those campaigning about tax transparency should publish their own tax returns to set a good example?
Anybody want to take bets on when Ritchie will have a breakdown and drive to Dundee in his bare feet while gorging on chocolate?
“an independent accreditation such as the Fair Tax Mark”
Anyone asked him if he supports any independent accreditation other than the Fair Tax Mark?
Ritchie is desperately plugging the Fair Tax Mark as he has lost his JRCT grant. I doubt he has made any money from it so far, as the fees from the handful of companies who have signed up won’t cover their set up costs. The car crash interview by the SSE guy on the Today programme isn’t likely to sell many more so I think Ritchie will need to look for other sources of income. He won’t get anything in HMT/HMRC under a Conservative government. My guess is he will look to the EU or the OECD.
GlenDorran – great idea, there has to be an opportunity there!
@Sam Jones
It would be good news if the JRCT grant isn’t to be re-newed but do you have proof of that?
Actually, surely all Murphaloon need do is survive until his book is published when the money will come rolling in like the second coming of JK Rowling.
I don’t know who Mark is, but it doesn’t seem fair that RM focuses so much on taxing him.
Arf Arf.
The Fair Tax Mark has a prospectus on its website as it tries to flog ‘community shares’ to help it in its start up phase.
The prospectus anticipates licence (i.e. Fair Tax Mark) income of £20,000 in year 1, £60,000 in year 2 and £90,000 in year three, having by that time licensed 350 companies.
Year 1 ended 31 December 2014 so they are well into year 2 and so should be on track for £50,000 income so far (although the prospectus holds out the tantalising prospect of “the potential for much more significant growth”)
Elsewhere in the prospectus they mention that another of the aims of the Fair Tax Mark company is to promote research into tax and they anticipate paying £70k+ on research, mangement, consultancy and staff costs in year 2 rising to £100k+ in year 3. I can’t imagine which fat fucker was hoping he’d be able to get his pudgey little hands on some of that but it just ain’t happening.
A dozen or so companies having applied for the mark suggests they are more than a little short of their targets.
Ha fucking ha.
Dear Mr Worstall
I would be more interested in a Fair Taxed Mark™ awarded to governments which do not tax their livestock (whimsically known as ‘citizens’) to excess – i.e. keep their total tax robbery below 15% of GDP.
I thought it was well established common knowledge that corporations do not actually pay corporation tax; it is only squishy flesh and blood real people who can, and not a shoe box containing a die stamp, a book of share certificates – some issued, some not – a roll of red seals and a copy of a Memorandum and Articles of Association. It doesn’t even have to be fed.
DP
If there are issues with number applying then its a marketing issue. Who has been doing the bad marketing of a product the creators think has only a small market – 350 companies expected to sign up over such a period?
Does anyone know off the top of his head how many companies are extant in the UK, and therefore what fraction of them have been gulled into signing up for The Mark of Fair Tax™? Does it exceed 10⁻⁷?
@BICR
c3,300,000 companies in all, c2,400,000 are ‘live’ (i.e. Companies House are expecting accounts as they haven’t been told the company is dormant).
So, 2,400,000 companies and the Fair Tax Mark was targeting 350 but have so far issued less than 10 ‘Marks’.
Most of the FTM awarded are a joke anyway. Co-ops and the funniest one is a FTM awarded to Lush…. who fund Ethical Consumer…. who run the FTM for Ritchie.
It’s all rather interesting. Back in April last year Mazars held an event where Murphy (among others) spoke about the FTM. I asked him what is actually involved in the process, as at one point on his blog he’d said it took a lot of work and so the fees were justified, and on another he’d said “How long does it take to read some tax notes and look at an annual return?”, suggesting the process was fairly brief.
His reply was that assessing the position was pretty quick, but what took the time was discussing ways in which the company could improve its reporting position.
Mind you, he didn’t then go on to explain why that was simpler for a small company (charged £100) than for a large one (charged several grand). I’d have thought discussions would be less proportional to the size of a company than reviewing data, but hey ho.
The way he spoke suggested that there had been a lot of such discussions, so it’s rather odd that we still only have a dozen or so, with co-ops being a large part of the total.
I do wonder whether I should quit the day job and launch the Fair Share Star properly 🙂 After all, that definition of “fair” ties in with the one in the OED… 😉
But it’s the age-old commercial question: does the failure of one entrant into a new market mean there’s an opportunity for someone else to exploit the market better, or just that there’s no market?
AndyC – the JRCT website lists all their grants, and Ritchie’s grant for £35k per year runs out in June 2015. It is described as part of their ‘Power and Responsibility’ programme which is no longer running