$Stock*Shop*Charts*News*Option$

[Stock Lobster]

UKT: Unilever threatens to quit UK over tax burden

The chief executive of Unilever has warned that the company may move its operations offshore if the Government increases the tax and regulatory burden.

Published: 6:05AM GMT 11 Feb 2010

Paul Polman, chief executive, said the company was already facing a tougher economic environment because consumers have less money to spend.

“If on top of that we would get an additional regulatory or tax environment that would make us non-competitive that would be unfortunate for the UK," he told the Daily Mail.

He added:"We do have choices where we put research laboratories, choices for manufacturing facilities, and choices where we put our senior management.

"Any responsible businessman needs to continue to assess that within an ever-changng global environment."

If it left the UK, Unilever would be the biggest company to quit the country over the growing tax burden.

Others to have left Britain recently include publishing groups Informa and United Business Media, pharmaceutical group Shire and Experian, the credit reference agency. Unilever, which makes PG Tips, Dove soap and Hellman’s mayonnaise, can trace its history in the UK back to the 1980s. The company has expanded into 100 countries and employs 174,000 staff, including 9,000 in the UK. It has a market capitalisation of £25bn.

Mr Polman joins a growing number of business leaders in expressing anger at the rapidly changing tax regimes and growing regulatory burden. Several have raised fears that the Government's 50pc new tax on high earners, set to be levied from April, could cause an exodus from the City.

Mr Polman raised concerns about rising corporation tax, which currently stands at 28pc. “We have to be sure when changes are contemplated [by the Government] that it takes into account what other countries do as well in Europe, or outside of Europe, to provide competitive corporate tax rates," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7209715/Unilever-threatens-to-quit-UK-over-tax-burden.html