Today we see a fightback from the aviationisatas to the campaign against those dirty tax dodging firms who simply don't want to pay their dues in the UK. Aviation are crying about how hard life is in their business, this is something they excel at. Despite all the freeloading they already do at the expense of tax paying residents in the UK they are upset: oil has gone up to over $100 a barrel and rather than pay VAT themselves they sat back and saw Air Passenger Duty be created so the government could collect some type of tax from that specially treated sector, aviation. You can read all about it here, including comment and feedback.
Lets just consider just a few of the perks and negative effects that aviation has over other businesses in terms of finance:
1. It is rated as zero VAT - this means it pays no VAT on fuel, servicing or parts. Triples all round on that one eh?
2. It's has a privileged position in terms of reducing emissions, don't ask us how it's achieved it, we'll leave you to imagine: whilst we all take on the cost and responsibility of reducing emissions, aviation responds that 'they can't afford to reduce theirs'.
Can you really afford that extra VAT on those essential items in your shopping trolley each week? Well if you can't why not just say to your supermarket that you can't afford the VAT as it's too expensive and deduct if off the bill. Even better, why not try deducting it off your utility bills? Yes, the luxury of heating a home will become considerably cheaper if residents were given the same perks and 'special treatment' that the aviationistas receive.
Fuel poverty is not something the aviation industry has ever had to deal with, however it is most certainly something a lot of people have to deal with under the London City Airport flight paths. Oh yes, London City Airport are just one of the airports that are asking for more special treatment on taxes, the same airport that gets London Taxpayers to pay their £5.5m annual security costs for the MET and received £1,256,629.00 of taxpayer money from the London Development Agency between 2004-20011. Yes, London City Airport is insatiable for your money!!
3. In 2008 aviation created a £17.6 billion tourism deficit - it took this money out of this country and dumped it somewhere else. So at a time when we keep hearing business say that they need consumer confidence to spend more money in the UK the aviation industry want more state benefits/special treatment to help them fly more people, and their money out? We know who we'd like to fly out on a one way ticket, and it's not the tourists.
4. Then we come to that little issue of where and how aviation pays it's taxes. London City Airport - in various names just happens to be registered in the Channel Islands. We can't think why that would be, however it was suggested by a local resident that this could be due to them not wanting to pay UK taxes. What, LCY not want to pay their way - surely not!! City Jet is another - ask them how many of their staff are registered as employees and paid in the UK. So despite their staff being counted in the employment statistics at LCY it appears none are actually registered in this country as employees. They instead appear to be paid in Euros. So no tax for the UK there then either. We could continue, but we simply don't have the time to list all the misdemeanors.
LCY is situated in the third most socially deprived borough in the country, after over 26 years the airport has had not had any tangible impact on helping improve the fortunes of the very people and communities that are subject to excessive air and noise pollution as a result of it's activities.
