Weasel Words
Here are some weasel words issued on behalf of the Barclays Group - in response to the revelation that the bank paid tax amounting to only 2.4% of its record profits - in 2009.
"The corporate tax affairs of an organisation with the global footprint of Barclays are complex, and not reducible to simplistic comparisons. Any link between Barclays Group profits and the amount of tax paid to the UK Government is inappropriate. There is no direct comparison between the two."
Barclays UK corporation tax bill in 2009 was £113m - yet the company returned worldwide profits of £4.6 billion in that year.
"The corporate tax affairs of an organisation with the global footprint of Barclays are complex, and not reducible to simplistic comparisons. Any link between Barclays Group profits and the amount of tax paid to the UK Government is inappropriate. There is no direct comparison between the two."
Barclays UK corporation tax bill in 2009 was £113m - yet the company returned worldwide profits of £4.6 billion in that year.
Even allowing for the fact that some - even a lot - of its profits came from operations outside the UK - that's one hell of a good tax rate.
