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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 1d

First, news that the Budget may put Employers' NIC on partnership income. Now a new leak that general partnerships may be exempted to avoid hitting 🩺GP practices. TaxWatch's Mike Lewis talks to @thetimes.com radio.

Reposted by TaxWatch

New Economy Brief @neweconomybrief.bsky.social · 3d

Also including:
- @autonomy-institute.bsky.social on the political economy of AI
- @mathewlawrence.bsky.social on the 'privatisation premium' on essentials
- @jryancollins.bsky.social on reforming property tax
- @taxwatch.bsky.social on the big pharma tax loop hole
and more!

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Reposted by TaxWatch

Just Treatment @justtreatment.org · 8d

1/ 🚨We’re getting a bad deal.

Pharma companies are freeloading on the UK taxpayer.

Read @taxjusticeuk.bsky.social's new investigation ⬇️
www.taxwatchuk.org/taxwatch-inv...

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Reposted by TaxWatch

Critical Takes on Corporate Power @criticaltakes.bsky.social · 8d

The UK's Patent Box tax break is meant to promote "innovation".

Last year a single pharma company collected a massive £486 million, or a quarter of its entire value.

For doing what, exactly?

Critical Takes fed into this investigation by @taxwatch.bsky.social

www.taxwatchuk.org/wp-content/u...

www.taxwatchuk.org

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Reposted by TaxWatch

Nick Dearden @nickdearden.bsky.social · 8d

As Big Pharma’s attack on the UK continues this report by @taxwatch.bsky.social👇shows 1 Pharma company has received billions in tax relief.

It’s part of the crazy subsidies we give big business to ‘drive innovation’. Instead it drives monopolies & high prices 🧵

www.taxwatchuk.org/the-great-ph...

The great pharma tax giveaway

HMRC says that over 1600 companies benefit from the Patent Box, a tax relief intended to stimulate innovation and high-value jobs across the UK economy. But previously unpublished figures show that ov...

www.taxwatchuk.org

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Reposted by TaxWatch

Tax Justice UK @taxjusticeuk.bsky.social · 8d

🚨BREAKING🚨

💊 GSK lobbied for a juicy tax break, pocketed £3.4bn, then ghosted on UK investments.

It's time to end the "Patent Box" tax break scheme, gifting billions to Big Pharma.

Full report from @taxwatch.bsky.social: www.taxwatchuk.org/taxwatch-inv...

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

nd as the government mulls tax rises, we need to get serious about scrutinising how – often massively costly - tax reliefs are working.

To get an early look at TaxWatch news, you can join our mailing list at subscribepage.com/taxwatch

Subscribe to our newsletter

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

As pharma companies push the NHS to pay more for medicines, and demand investment incentives from the government, we need to be honest about how these companies already benefit from the UK’s tax system, with little discernable economic benefit. www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/market...

Outgoing GSK boss Emma Walmsley takes swipe at Labour

Walmsley became the latest to speak out over a pricing regime that has infuriated the pharmaceutical sector.

www.thisismoney.co.uk

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

And unlike some other recipients, GSK Plc declares its benefits from innovation reliefs in the accounts of its UK subsidiaries. This should be required: if a company got a multi-billion pound government grant, there would be no way it would be allowed to keep it a secret.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

It's a laudable aim: but the problem is that it doesn't require the claimants to exploit, market or manufacture the qualifying innovations in the UK.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

There is no suggestion that any of the companies mentioned in TaxWatch’s report are attempting to avoid or evade the effects of UK tax law. They are taking lawful advantage of a highly permissive tax relief which predominantly benefits large, profitable companies.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

Some other countries also opposed the UK Patent Box, and the OECD found in 2015 that it was a ‘harmful tax regime’, incentivising profit shifting. The UK tweaked its design in response, but we've found its fundamentals remain the same. www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...

Germans force patent box rejig

THE Treasury is expected to tweak its patent box scheme to placate European critics.The tax break is a key pillar of George Osborne’s pledge to give Britain one of the most competitive tax regimes in

www.thetimes.com

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

Even if it did stimulate investment, is the Patent Box the most effective way to do it? The Patent Box tax cut that GSK gets is an annual subsidy of over £50,000 for each of the group’s full-time-equivalent UK jobs.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

A 2024 HMRC survey of large businesses found that Patent Box tax relief had not stimulated new innovation by the majority of firms that have benefited from the relief, and “had not impacted their overall business or investment decisions.” www.gov.uk/government/p...

The Large Business Customer Survey 2024

Research into large businesses’ experiences of dealing with HMRC, their views on administration of tax policy and wider influences on their attitudes to tax.

www.gov.uk

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

GSK cancelled plans for this new factory in 2017, and in June 2025 GSK closed its existing factory in Ulverston too. Since it began to benefit from the Patent Box incentive, the number of people that GSK employs in the UK has fallen by around 25 percent. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

End of production at GSK's Ulverston site 'a sad day'

GlaxoSmithKline's plant in Ulverston is closing after more than 75 years of operating.

www.bbc.co.uk

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

GSK originally promised that once the Patent Box relief was introduced, it would invest £500 million in building a new factory in Ulverston, Cumbria. What happened next, after all the headlines about new UK investment? www.bbc.co.uk/news/busines...

Glaxo invests £500m in UK and builds new factory

UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline says it will invest £500m in manufacturing in the nation, including building a new factory in Ulverston, Cumbria.

www.bbc.co.uk

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

The Patent Box is intended to encourage knowledge development, manufacturing and jobs within the UK. But patents owned by GSK subsidiaries receiving Patent Box relief include drugs developed by companies in the USA and Switzerland, and manufactured in other EU countries.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

Some of GSK's Patent Box tax cuts have been for an auto-immune drug whose IP it shifted to the UK in 2012, but which GSK initially offered to the
@NHSuk
in 2012 at such a high price that NHS patients couldn't have it until 2016, when GSK finally agreed to lower the price.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

For context: the £486m tax cut that GSK got from the Patent Box in 2024 is larger than the entire 2024 budget of the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, the UK government’s main bio-science innovation funder.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

Since its introduction in 2013, the Patent Box regime has reduced GSK Plc’s tax liabilities by £3.4bn, including £486m in 2024 alone.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

GSK was one of the leading advocates for introducing the Patent Box in 2013, against the advice of much of UK manufacturing, who called it "a costly and inefficient subsidy for a narrow set of companies" publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/...

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

HMRC says 1650 firms benefit from this tax regime. But we’ve discovered that over half of this £2bn+ relief goes to just 10 firms, and over a quarter to just one firm: the profitable pharma multinational GSK Plc.

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

Our new investigation looks at the Patent Box: : a tax break intended to stimulate innovation and jobs by allowing qualifying firms to pay just 10% corporation tax on profits from patented products. It now costs the public purse over £2 billion a year.

https://www.taxwatchuk.org/the-great-pharma-tax-giveaway/

t.co

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · 8d

In this year's Budget, we're told every penny counts. Yet we've found the UK has given one pharma company a £3.4 billion tax cut on profits of patented drugs, including some too expensive for the NHS, while it still cut UK jobs. How did this happen, and why did no-one notice?🧵

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TaxWatch @taxwatch.bsky.social · Sep 6

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