We seek to balance our goal of sustained economic value creation with ensuring that our ways of working comply with current tax legislation. Our business has a strong focus on corporate responsibility, and we view compliance in administration and payment of taxes as a key element of doing business in the right way.
The company manages risks to ensure compliance with legal requirements in a manner which ensures payment of the right amount of tax. We engage external advisers to provide additional assistance with tax compliance, including for supervisory review of the company’s business risk strategies, as well as to review our internal processes and procedures. External tax advice is also sought where the tax treatment of transactions is complex, unclear or uncertain under UK tax law. The company does not engage in tax planning that does not support genuine commercial activity nor does it participate in artificial tax avoidance schemes to reduce its UK tax liabilities. The company does not seek to structure transactions in ways that give tax results inconsistent with their underlying economic consequences.