Small town 'moves offshore' to highlight tax evasion
Like many of us, the residents of Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons were outraged to discover how companies like Google, Facebook and Starbucks are using loopholes in the tax system to get away without paying their fair share.
Unlike most of us, though, they decided to take action.
And so businesses in the small town, from a book shop to a salmon smokery, have decided to copy the multinationals' tax practices to highlight the issue.
Followed by a team from the BBC, the traders have submitted their own tax plan to HMRC, based on the tricks used by the corporations.
"Until now, these complicated offshore tricks have only been open to big companies who can afford the lawyers' fees," says Jo Carthew, who runs Crickhowell's Black Mountain Smokery.
"But we've put our heads together, and worked out a way to mimic these big tax dodgers. It's jolly clever."
The traders are keen to stress that they aren't trying to evade their responsibilities - merely put more pressure on the government to close the loopholes exploited by those who should be paying more.
"I have always paid every penny of tax I owe, and I don't object to that," says coffee shop owner Steve. "What I object to is paying my full tax when my big name competitors are doing the damnedest to dodge theirs."
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-tax%
Last month, it was revealed that Facebook paid just £4,327 in corporation tax last year - less than the average British worker pays in income tax.
Like other corporations, it achieves this through a series of complicated techniques such as routing sales through countries where taxes are lower or paying massive 'licensing' fees to overseas subsidiaries.
Starbucks, meanwhile, has paid just £8.6 million in corporation tax since starting up in the UK in 1998, and Caffé Nero has paid nothing since 2008, despite recording sales worth £1.2 billion.
The European Commission is currently investigating Google, Amazon, Starbucks and a division of Fiat over their tax arrangements, and says it plans to force them to report profits on a country-by-country basis.
However, it stopped short of banning companies from treating their subsidiaries as separate entities.
The Crickhowell traders have had professional help setting up their scheme, but say that they've met with HMRC and confirmed it's legal. And they point out that, in theory, it's a tactic that could be used across the country to create further pressure for reform.
The documentary will be screened next year as part of BBC Two's Britain's Black Economy season.
