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Journal of Public Health | Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 69–76 | doi:10.

1093/pubmed/fdz004 | Advance Access Publication February 6, 2019

The failure of the UK to tax adequately tobacco company


profits
J. Robert Branston 1,2, Anna B. Gilmore2,3
1
School of Management, University of Bath, Bath, UK
2
University of Bath, Institute for Policy Research, Bath, UK
3
University of Bath Tobacco Control Research Group, Department for Health, University of Bath and UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Bath, UK
Address correspondence to J. Robert Branston, E-mail: J.R.Branston@bath.ac.uk

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ABSTRACT

Background A key driver of the global tobacco epidemic is the massive profit earned from manufacturing tobacco products despite high levels
of product taxation. Two of the four major Transnational Tobacco companies are based in the UK, where there is growing evidence of
corporate tax avoidance by transnational firms and where there are calls for the industry to pay more towards the harms caused by tobacco
products.

Objectives/Methods UK tobacco company profit and corporation tax data between 2009 and 2016 is obtained from publically available
sources. The intention is not to perform a piece of forensic accounting but to establish the broad pattern of profit and taxation in order to
inform consideration of tobacco product and firm taxation, and hence public health.

Results Very little profit based taxation has been paid in the UK despite high levels of reported profits, both in the domestic market and
globally.

Conclusions The UK needs better reporting and corporate taxation standards. Tobacco companies should be made to pay more profit based
taxation, such as by extending the surcharge on corporation tax currently paid by UK banks, and by making sure companies pay appropriate
taxes when reorganizing corporate structures.

Keywords corporation tax, profits, taxation, tobacco Industry, UK

Introduction the UK Department of Health estimated the cost of smok-


ing to the economy was in excess of £11bn per year in
Manufacturing tobacco products is inordinately profitable
England alone12 (84% of the total UK population) and other
despite high taxation of the resulting products.1,2 For
estimates suggest an even higher cost.13,14 In light of this
instance, in 2015 the combined profit after taxation of the
imbalance, the funding shortfall for the UK National Health
four transnational tobacco companies (TTC)—British
Service,15 growing evidence of corporate tax avoidance by
American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris International
large transnational companies,16–21 and recent calls for
(PMI), Japan Tobacco (JT) and Imperial Brands—was US
tobacco companies to pay for the harm they cause,22 we
$20bn (£13bn).3–6 Such profitability has been highlighted as
explore the corporate profit taxation (corporation tax) paid
a key driver of the global tobacco epidemic given that public
by tobacco companies in the UK between 2009 and 2016.
tobacco companies have a fiduciary duty to continue to seek
The intention is not to perform a piece of forensic account-
profits for their shareholders, which currently means selling
ing, but rather to use publically available information to
deadly tobacco products.7,8 Furthermore, two of the four
establish if they are paying the full UK tax rate and how
major TTCs are based in the UK, a very profitable tobacco
market in its own right,9,10 and where all four have signifi- J. Robert Branston, Subject lead and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in
cant market shares. In 2017, £9.5bn was generated in excise Business Economics
duty from the sale of tobacco products in the UK,11 while Anna B. Gilmore, Professor of Public Health

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com 69
70 JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

their tax payments compare to the harm their products allowances to carry-over from one year to the next, meaning
cause, in order to inform consideration of tobacco product firms using these do not pay at the levels implied by the tax
and firm taxation, and hence public health. rate and their reported profit levels.58 Each set of accounts
includes a taxation note offering some detail on the calculation
of the tax charge included, but this does not offer detailed cal-
Background culations or cover the use of such allowances so is of limited
Since 2009 the UK, like many countries, has operated a ter- value.
ritorial tax system, meaning all firms (both tobacco and We therefore utilized the reported information covering
other) are required to pay UK corporation tax on just the tax charges3,4,28–49 and two definitions of profits (Box 1):
profits earned in the UK market.23 Other countries, such as adjusted operating profit; and profit before tax, which is the
basis of corporation tax payments in the UK. We first identi-

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the USA, operate a global tax system so profits reported in
(for example) the USA are taxed irrespective of where they fied global profits and the associated overseas tax charge (i.e.
originated. A further complication is that accounting stan- the total amount of tax paid in all individual markets com-
dards and reporting requirements differ across countries, bined), and used these to calculate the effective overseas tax
meaning that companies based in different countries report rate (tax charge divided by profit before tax) to provide con-
their performance in slightly different ways, with different text. We then looked at the UK using profit data to calculate
levels of detail and different measures of profit.24–26 the theoretical corporation tax due if it had been paid at the
rates in force without any allowances/deductions. This was
compared with the actual tax paid (i.e. the reported UK tax
Methods and definitions charge in the accounts), and the effective tax rate calculated
The intention was to identify profit earned and tax paid by the (tax paid divided by profits). Inadequate and varying UK
tobacco companies operating in the UK, and to compare these profit reporting in the annual reports required us to use pre-
to the payments expected based on the published rates of UK viously published profit estimates where data were not
Corporation tax.27 We therefore extracted profit and tax data reported,9,10 and to take a somewhat bespoke approach for
from the annual financial statements and associated notes within company specific estimates as detailed in the footnotes to
the 2009 to 2016 annual reports/accounts of the four major the tables below. Several data series have been given as a
tobacco companies operating there: the two TTCs (Imperial, range where an appropriate single estimate was not possible.
BAT) based in the UK and their largest UK subsidiaries, and
the UK subsidiaries of JT (Gallaher Ltd), and PMI (Philip
Findings
Morris Limited).3,4,28–56 However, all of the required information
was not available as the UK government has only required that Imperial brands
transnational firms submit details of their group activities on a Imperial Brands, based in the UK and long-time market
country-by-country basis from 31 December 2016. Not only is leader in the UK tobacco market, has made around £3bn in
this after our period of study, but this detailed information is global ‘adjusted operating profit’ from its global operations
both unpublished and also unavailable to the public due to in each of the last 8 years (Table 1), paying hundreds of mil-
confidentiality, making it problematic to establish the profits on lions in taxation to foreign governments when doing so (fur-
which UK tax is due.57 Further opacity is created by the UK ther details of which countries and how these were incurred
tax code which allows firms to reduce their corporation tax are not provided in the annual reports), an effective tax rate of
bills with allowances for things like research and development, 16–51%. In the UK market, the company seems to have made
and other types of investment, and by allowing these adjusted operating profits of over £577 m annually since 2009,

Box 1 UK definitions of profits as used in company accounts

Adjusted operating The profit generated from all business operations (operating profit) adjusted to remove exceptional items such as
profit restructuring costs

Profit before tax The measure used for corporation tax purposes, which differs from the above by including the exceptional items and allowing
firms to make deductions for certain expenses, such as net finance costs (costs of borrowing and working in multiple
currencies). For these reasons considerably lower and more variable year on year than adjusted operating profit.
TAXING UK TOBACCO COMPANY PROFITS 71

*Estimates (Imperial stopped reporting UK data in 2013) calculated using the reported gross profitability of the main UK subsidiary of Imperial, adjusted because on average between 2013 and 2009, these represented
likely making hundreds of millions of this as profit before tax

£54 m–£168 m

Theoretical UK tax due estimates what would be payable on UK adjusted operating profit (high level) and UK profit before tax (lower level) if no allowances/deductions were allowed. Corporation tax rate changes all took
(the latter not being directly reported), and yet has actually paid

10.5–31.5%
£2933 m
very little UK corporation tax. Indeed, despite the tax rate ran-

36.61%

£194 m
£945 m
£346 m

£601m

£61 m
(28%)
2009

ging from 28% in 2009 to 20% by 2015,27 we estimate the


company rarely paid at anything like this, paying a highest
effective rate of between 10.5 and 31.5% in 2009, and for 3

−6.03%–−8.73%
£119 m–£172 m
years actually receiving millions in corporation tax refunds/
credits, the reasons for which are not specified.
£2118 m
£3067 m

25.21%

−£37 m
£424 m
£534 m

£614 m

(28%)
Take 2013: £623 m in adjusted operating profit was
2010

earned from the UK tobacco market, suggesting UK profit

place on the 1 April, meaning two rates applied to individual company financial years which run from October to September. In such cases, the lower rate was applied for the full year.
before tax was £239 m (based on the ratio between global

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−5.03%–−7.24% adjusted operating profit and global profit before tax), but
£104 m–£150 m

just £6 m was paid in corporation tax. This represents just


(28/26%)
£2153 m
£3103 m

16.26%

0.96% of adjusted operating profits and 2.51% of estimated


−£29 m
£400 m
£350 m

£577m
2011

Estimates produced by assuming the same relationship between UK adjusted operating profit and profit before tax exists as is the case at the global level.
profit before tax, compared to the 24/23% rate of corporation
tax due (it changed mid-year).
−17.89%–−52.23%

British American Tobacco


£51–£150 m

BAT, the other UK-based TTC, has a relatively small share


(26/24%)
−£112 m
£1081 m
£3161 m

45.33%

£214 m
£490 m

of the UK tobacco market (e.g. 8.3% in 201210). Its financial


£627 m
2012

performance (Table 2) reveals a similar but more extreme


pattern. BAT made billions in global profits, including hun-
£55 m–£143 m

dreds of millions estimated in the UK market, but has paid


0.9–2.51%

virtually no UK corporation tax from 2010 onwards (effect-


(24/23%)
£3180 m
£1219 m

38.72%
£472 m

£239 m
£623 m

Calculated using reported adjusted operating profit (lower rate) and estimated profit before tax (higher rate).
2013

ive rate of 0% in most years) despite paying considerable


£6 m

amounts of overseas tax (effective rates of 22–30%).


1.12–2.19%
£67–£131m
(23/21%)
£625 m*
£1525 m
£2981m

Gallaher Ltd
26.56%
£405m

£320 m
2014

£7 m

As the main JT subsidiary in the UK, Gallaher Ltd accounts


for a similar UK market share to Imperial (e.g. in 2012 JT
had a 36.1% market share compared with 36.7% for imper-
ial10) and although UK focussed, it reports a small inter-
5.65–9.82%
£73–£127m

national aspect to its operations.38–44,48 Gallaher has, in all


(21/20%)
£3053 m
£1756 m

£637m*
25.57%
£449 m

£367m

£36 m
2015

years, paid significantly more in UK corporation tax than


Table 1 Imperial Brands profitability and corporate taxes paid

only 134.44% of the final figure reported by the group overall.

the previous two UK-based TTCs (Table 3) despite being a


UK subsidiary of a foreign firm. The reasons for this are
£32m–£126m

unclear, but possibly relate to the history of Gallaher as an


5.24–20.45%

independent UK-based company until 2007 and/or


£3541 m

£630m*
51.49%
£907 m
£467 m

£161m

£33 m
(20%)

unknown details in the tax codes of the UK; Switzerland


2016

(the headquarters of JTI, JT’s international operations); and


Japan (the headquarters of JT, the ultimate parent).
Actual UK corporation tax charge
Global adjusted operating profit

Actual overseas taxation charge

Estimated UK profit before taxφ

The actual UK corporation tax charge, the effective tax


Theoretical UK corporation tax
UK adjusted operating profit

rate, and the theoretical tax due all vary widely year to year.
Source: Refs.3,27–32,46,50–56
Effective overseas tax rate
Global profit before tax

One of the reasons behind this is a series of corporate


Effective UK Tax rateβ

restructurings that took place in 2009, 2011, and 2012,


where Gallaher sold intellectual property assets (including
due (% rate)α

brands) to other companies within the JT group, creating


one-off exceptional increases in profit before taxation (but
note, not operating profit).41,42,44 The rationale behind this
φ

β
72 JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

restructuring is not given, but might relate to the 2009

Theoretical UK tax due estimates what would be payable on UK adjusted operating profit if no allowances /deductions were allowed. Global profits before tax and adjusted operating profits do not differ hugely during the period of ana-
lysis so these represent reasonable estimates even though they are based on adjusted operating profits rather than profits before tax on which corporation tax is payable. Corporation tax rate changes all took place on the 1 April, mean-

Note, this is calculated using adjusted operating profit rather than profit before tax on which corporation tax is payable since the latter was unavailable. At the Global level these do not differ hugely during the peri-
£40.2 m–£105.7 m

*BAT does not report profit by country so previously published estimates have been utilized where available.10 The main BAT subsidiary in the UK, British American Tobacco UK Limited, offers no meaningful insight
change to a territorial tax system in Japan, the home of

£20.4 m (28%)
£4080 m
Japan Tobacco (the ultimate parent company). In these three
£4461 m

£1147 m
28.11%

21.93%
years of restructuring, one-off exceptional increases in profit

ing two rates applied to individual company financial years which run from January to December. In such cases, the lower rate was applied for the full year. Since profit estimates are a range, the mid-point has been used.
£16 m
2009

before taxation (but note, not operating profit) were created,


yet the company was able to reduce its tax liabilities on these
£50.2 m–£109.8 m

larger profits since they paid an effective UK tax rate of


£22.4 m (28%)

between just 5 and 12%, compared with the 24% plus


due.27 The exact means of reducing the tax liability in this
−20.00%
£4388 m
£4984 m

£1294 m
29.49%

−£16 m
2010

manner is unclear, but it might relate to the ability to treat


these one-off profits as a capital gain on assets rather than

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operating profits. Following these restructurings, Gallaher’s
£57.5 m–£111.9 m
£22.0 m (28/26%)

‘profit is substantially lower than [in] prior years, reflecting


lower margins earned by the company as a limit risk distributor
£4931 m

given the reported figures are not in keeping with the size of BAT’s market share in the UK—see section discussing the performance of PMI for illustration.72
£5519 m

£1470 m
29.81%

for brands now owned by JTI SA’.42,p.4 This is seen in the way
2011

0%
£0

that both operating profit and profit before tax are relatively
high prior to 2011, and then significantly lower from 2013 once
£72.7 m–£141.4 m
£25.7 m (26/24%)

restructuring was complete. Thus although the effective tax rate


in these latest years is higher, it is paid on a far lower profit.
£5592 m
£5641 m

£1538 m
27.50%

These corporate reorganizations do not mean that JT was


2012

0%

suddenly less profitable in the UK. Instead it highlights that


£0

tobacco companies, like other large companies, can use


£26.4 m (24/23%)
£78.2 m –£152 m

group legal structures, the complicated nature of tax codes,


and accounting practices to shift corporate profit centres to
£5799 m
£5820 m

£1567m
27.02%

other (presumably more attractive) tax jurisdictions. In this


2013

0%

case it also suggests that in recent years the operations of


£0

od of analysis so these represent reasonable estimates. The mid-point of the profit estimate was utilized.

Gallaher Ltd do not reflect the full profitability of JT in the


n/a (23/21%)

UK. It is however, noteworthy that since 2013 the company


£4848 m
£1450 m
£5403 m

29.91%

has effectively been paying above the UK rates in force, and


2014

the accounts48, p.30 suggest that this is due to ‘adjustments


0%
n/a

£0

to tax charge in respect of prior years’.38,39,48


n/a (21/20%)
£5855 m
£1324 m
£4992 m

22.61%

Philip Morris International


2015

£5 m

The final TTC with a significant share of the UK market is


n/a

n/a

PMI (7.5% share in 2012, broadly similar to that of BAT10).


n/a (20%)
£6245 m
£1395 m
£5480m

Unfortunately, no reliable information on its current UK


22.34%
2016

£7 m

position are available as PMI does not directly report on the


n/a

n/a
Table 2 BAT profitability and corporate taxes paid

UK market and their UK subsidiary—Philip Morris Ltd—is


Theoretical UK corporation tax due (% rate due)γ

very small relative to the size of its UK market share, sug-


gesting it does not reflect anything like the true extent of
Estimated UK adjusted operating profits*

their UK operations. For instance, in 2012 Philip Morris


Global adjusted profit from operations

Limited reported revenue of £174 m, with an operating


Actual UK corporation tax charge

profit of £4.7 m.61 In contrast Gallaher, with about five


Actual overseas taxation charge

Source: Refs.4,10,27,33–37,47,60

times the market share, reported revenue of £4740 m,41 sug-


n/a, Estimates unavailable.
Effective overseas tax rate

gesting that true PMI UK revenue would be about £950 m


Effective UK tax rateδ

given their respective market shares. Only in 2016 does


Profit before tax

Philip Morris Ltd come close to this, when revenue was


£877 m, but operating profits were only £9 m and tax was
actually a refund of £0.6 m49 suggesting these accounts still
δ
γ

do not fully reflect the entire actives of PMI in the UK.


TAXING UK TOBACCO COMPANY PROFITS 73

Discussion

*In 2009, 2011 and 2012 Gallaher Ltd sold assets to other subsidiary companies in the JTI group, creating one-off exceptional increases in profit before taxation (and hence large differences between
Main findings of this study

£193.8 m

Theoretical UK tax due estimates what would be payable on UK Profit before tax if no allowances/deductions were allowed. Corporation tax rate changes all took place on the 1 April, meaning
11.13%
£752 m
£372 m

£312 m
£692 m
This paper makes three key findings, all of which likely
2009*

£77 m
(28%)
extend beyond the tobacco industry and beyond the UK.

Given the overwhelming UK focus of the company, calculated by removing the overseas adjusted operating profit (i.e. different between UK and global) from global profit before tax.
First, that reporting standards in the UK are wholly inad-
equate. Imperial has been allowed (from 2014) to stop

£106.7 m

20.47%
reporting UK adjusted operating profits, BAT and PMI
£440 m
£404 m

£345 m
£381 m

£78 m
(28%)
2010

have never (to our knowledge) done so, and none of the
four TTC have reported profit before tax for the UK. At
the very least companies should be required to report all

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£619.8 m (28/

measures of profits for each individual market in which they


£2404 m

£2384 m

11.74%

operate, and the cases of JT and PMI in particular show this


£280 m
£160 m

£140 m
2011*

26%)

needs to cover the activities of all group companies when


doing so. The new requirement that transnational companies
notify the UK government with country-by-country infor-
£150.5 m (26/

mation is a welcome step in the right direction, but such


information needs to be made public in annual reports, and
£627 m
£643 m
£172 m

£156 m

5.26%
2012*

£33 m
24%)

further steps are needed.


Second, the example of JT and Gallaher Ltd highlights
that companies can easily re-organize their corporate struc-
£31.05 m (24/

tures in ways that result in profits being shifted overseas.


24.44%

The UK government needs to learn from these practices


£175 m

£152 m
£135 m
£158 m

£33 m
23%)
2013

and make sure they cannot occur without paying an appro-


priate amount of tax. Unfortunately, such events might
become more common as the UK adopted a ‘patent box’
£24.17 m (23/

regime from 2013 which now charges lower levels of cor-


£174.1 m

£152.8 m
£136.4 m

two rates applied to individual company financial years which run from January to December.

poration tax (10%) on the sale of intellectual assets.62


59.08%
£115 m

£68 m
21%)
2014

The third key finding is that the major tobacco companies


operating in the UK are generally not paying UK corporation
tax at anything like the level their reported profitability might
£35.2 m (21/

initially suggest. For the last 7 years Imperial has only paid an
£181.5 m

£161.4 m

£51 .3m
29.16%
£196 m

£176 m

effective rate of 20.45% and generally a lot lower, BAT has paid
20%)
2015

virtually nothing, while PMI’s subsidiary reports its UK profits


in a way wholly out of line with the size of its UK market
share. Only Gallaher has paid at anything like the UK rate in
Table 3 Gallaher Ltd profitability and corporate taxes paid

£172.1 m
£165.1 m
£153.6 m

£29.3 m

£43.6 m
29.74%
£147 m

the recent years, and that is only since it completed a corporate


(20%)
2016

restructuring during which it paid at rates as low as 5%. The


exact reasons behind such poor levels of industry taxation are
operating profit and profit before taxation).
Theoretical UK corporation tax due (% rate

unclear but it is likely to do with the territorial nature and other


details of the current UK tax code, and the corporate struc-
Estimated UK profit before taxationλ

tures adopted. The lack of tax revenue generated from such a


Actual UK corporation tax charge
Global adjusted operating profit

profitable industry, together with reports of firms in other


UK adjusted operating profit
Global profit before taxation

industries being similarly positioned,16–21 suggests that UK cor-


poration tax policy needs urgent reform to make sure all firms
Source: Refs.27,38–44,48
Effective UK Tax rate

pay meaningful amounts.

What is already known on this topic


due)ε
Year

The production of tobacco products is already known to be


λ

inordinately profitable and these profits have been identified


74 JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

as a key driver of the global tobacco epidemic and hence the number of ways this could be achieved. For instance, a cor-
associated harms to public health. Sufficiently detailed infor- poration tax surcharge, like the additional 8% currently
mation on tobacco use and taxation have also been high- charged on the domestic operations of UK banks,70 could
lighted as being key elements to addressing tobacco use.63 be extended to the UK market operations of the tobacco
Large transnational companies, such as Google and companies. Based on the corporate profitability of the UK
Facebook, have been identified as paying little UK corpor- market outlined above, an 8% corporation tax surcharge on
ation tax despite being very successful in this market.16–21 UK adjusted operating profits could have raised up to an add-
itional £74 m in 2013 if no allowances or deductions were
allowed, thereby increasing the tax take by more than 100%.
What this study adds The intention should be to increase this rate (over time) to
The issue of corporate taxation appears has been identified ensure that the companies more meaningfully meet the societal

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as being particularly acute for the tobacco industry given costs they are responsible for. This larger surcharge could be
that it is causing immense societal harm, the cost of which is applied only on the profits from combustion tobacco sales,
significantly borne by the public purse despite high levels of with a smaller surcharge applying to profits from electronic
taxation on tobacco sales. The shortfall of at least £1.5 bil- nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) in an attempt to reflect
lion in England alone11,12 between the societal costs of their relative harm and encourage a corporate shift away
tobacco and the excise revenue generated from tobacco is from combustible tobacco.8,71
clearly not addressed by the paltry sums of UK corporation
tax being collected and illustrates how much of the costs of Limitations of this study
tobacco are still externalized. Imperial, BAT, and Gallaher
The present study is limited by the available public data on
collectively paid just £83.6 m in corporation tax in 2016.
tobacco company profitability and tax liabilities/allowances,
The very low rates of UK corporation tax paid despite high
both globally and for the UK market in particular. These limita-
profits stand in contrast to the larger reported sums (and
tions mean that estimates have had to be made where reported
higher rates of up to 51%) paid in overseas profit taxes by
data is lacking, so care is needed when considering some of the
the British based TTCs. This and the fact that tobacco com-
detailed findings herein. Furthermore, the limited data prevents
panies based elsewhere pay significant amounts of domestic
more detailed exploration of issues such as: the utilization of tax
tax suggests this is not an insurmountable issue and that the
allowances, taxation of international activities, intertemporal tax
UK government is particularly poor at taxing this and, most
liabilities or impact of corporate restructurings.
likely other industries too. For example: in 2015 Swedish
Match reported an accounting profit of (Swedish Kroner)
SEK3,545 m on which they paid SEK742m income tax at Conflicts of interest
about the Swedish rate of 22%;64,p.70 US based Altria
reported earnings of $8078 m in 2015 on which they paid Dr Branston received funding from Action on Smoking and
$2835 m in income taxes, a rate of 35%, which includes Health (ASH) to facilitate an earlier report on a possible
both federal, state and local taxation.65,p.59 Taxation of inter- new tobacco levy that formed the origins of this article. The
national companies is clearly complex, and is the result of funders played no role in the study design, analysis and
many factors, including the system of taxation adopted and interpretation of data, writing or the decision to submit this
the details of the tax codes in force in their country of resi- article for publication. The content is solely the responsibility
dence (and their merits relative to other possible locations). of the authors.
Nevertheless, OECD and EU co-operation and co-
ordinated corporate tax reforms,26,66,67 plus additional domes- Acknowledgements
tic UK measures like the recently introduced diverted profit
tax68 suggest real progress in reforming corporate tax is pos- The authors would like to thank Jamie O’Neill, Marc Betton
sible if there is sufficient political will. Reforming the corporate and Paul Baker for various bits of help. The responsibility
reporting of sales and profits would be a good starting point. for errors, however, remains entirely our own.
Given the inherent incentives of high industry profitability
and the funding shortfall facing the NHS, there is both the
Funding
scope and need to have UK tobacco companies make a
greater contribution towards the harm they cause, and it is This work was supported by Cancer Research UK grant
likely to be popular with the voting public too.69 There are a number C50816/A25745.
TAXING UK TOBACCO COMPANY PROFITS 75

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