War on Want has exposed how, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, McDonald’s was using a circular, paper transaction to create a London tax shelter, depriving UK public funds of £295 million in tax over ten years.
McDonald’s also received an estimated £872 million in UK Covid-19 subsidies and tax breaks in 2020 – a year that the burger giant paid out a record £2.9 billion to its shareholders. As McDonald’s workers were paid poverty wages to work through UK lockdowns, breaking new sales records, McDonald’s saw the pandemic as an opportunity to increase its market share, and its payouts to shareholders.
McDonald’s tax dodging and the massive public subsidies it received – whilst its workers toiled on poverty wages – is a clear example of how the pandemic has accelerated inequality across the world. Now UK politicians are suggesting raising taxes on working people rather than cracking down on corporate tax dodging.
We must take action together and demand that the UK's tax authority, HMRC investigate McDonald’s. Please add your name and call on HMRC to investigate.
