Diageo chief says 50pc tax threatens their future in UK

The chief executive of Diageo, the British-based, world-leading drinks company, has said that the 50 per cent rate of income tax could force the company to look at relocating its headquarters to another jurisdiction. Paul Walsh said that the tax is posing the threat of "long term damage" to the UK's "competitive edge" and that it is making it more and more difficult for the company to attract quality, high-level staff. "I believe the 50 per cent tax rate will lead to the long-term damage of this nation’s competitive edge,” he said," he explained. "We will not be able to base people here and increasingly we will have to look at locating our quality people into lower tax jurisdictions."Diageo is the company behind a number of iconic international drinks brands, including Guinness, Smirnoff vodka and Baileys.Walsh said that any recruitment the company may look at carrying out in the near future would not be in the UK, because it is just too expensive. "If I employ staff in Singapore with a ten percent tax rate, I don't have to pay them as much for them to feel good and to go home with more money," Walsh explained. "This isn't complex stuff, this is simple common sense."

http://www.50percenttax.co.uk/index/2011/10/24/diageo-chief-says-50pc-tax-threatens-their-future-in-uk.html