The Fair Tax Foundation is in the final month of a community share offer on social investment platform Ethex, in a bid to raise £450,000 to expand its operations and bring five times as many businesses on board.
Around the world, 35% of multinational profits (£1tn) are artificially shifted to tax havens each year, depriving the public purse of funding for vital public services such as transport and healthcare, says the foundation. The UK, it claims, suffers from a corporate tax shortfall of £12.5bn each year because of this.
Launched in response to this, the Fair Tax Foundation has enjoyed a decade of steady income growth, reporting seven consecutive years of surplus.
With the Fair Tax Mark – which claims to be “the gold standard in responsible tax accreditation” – the foundation says it is “central to a movement of progressive businesses that are proud to pay their taxes and celebrate the enormous contribution this makes to public services”.
Some 250 distinct trading businesses are Fair Tax Mark accredited, including FTSE-listed companies such as SSE and Marshalls, and household names such as Lush and Timpson, a number of co-ops, including the Co-op Group, Midcounties, Radstock, Phone Co-op, East of England, Scotmid, Southern, VME, Co-operatives UK, Unicorn, Energy4All, Westmill Wind, Westmill Solar and Suma
Collectively, Fair Tax businesses employ over 275,000 people and contribute more than £1.7bn in corporation tax annually, the foundation adds.
It says it will use the new investment to:
- Create a new sales and business development team, broaden its product offering, expand its back-office and recruit and train new technical staff
- Increase its income from c.£500,000 to c.£2mn per year
- Quintuple its corporate engagement in the UK and overseas, leading to hundreds of Fair Tax Mark accredited companies combining to make a corporation tax contribution in excess of c.£8.5bn per annum
“This share offer is a rare opportunity to buy community shares in, and become a member of, the Fair Tax Foundation,” said CEO Paul Monaghan, “with subscribers becoming shareholders in the society alongside existing members. We believe the more businesses that stand up for responsible tax conduct, the more likely legislators are to create better laws, and the more likely regulators are to implement those laws robustly.
“Since our inception a decade ago, much has been achieved in reversing the global race to the bottom on corporation tax. But there is still so much more that needs to be achieved, both in the UK and across the globe. By supporting us to scale up our business, investors will help expand our influence, bolster public coffers and help steer the economy in a more enlightened direction at this critical moment in history.”
Ethex CEO Lisa Ashford said: “We are very excited to offer our community of investors the opportunity to support this share offer. We see it as a great chance to use your money to help create a more just and equitable world where corporations pay their fair share of tax and everyone in society can reap the benefits.”
The offer runs until 29 November – targeting an initial annual return of 6%, and UK base rate plus 1% thereafter. There is a minimum investment threshold of £200, and a maximum of £60,000 for individuals and £100,000 for organisations. As with all investments of this nature, capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed.
So far it has raised £292,000 of its £450,000 target, including £100,000 from the Barrow Cadbury Trust, an independent, endowed charitable foundation focuses on social justice and equality.
