[notahacker]

I don't think it's advocacy of "aggressive taxation policies" to argue that the corporation tax bill for a profitable multinational earning millions in UK revenue ought to be higher than the income tax bill for an individual person on the UK average wage. YMMV.

How many of Facebook's 362 UK staff would be unemployed for any significant period if they relocated to Dublin? How many would instead be adding value to a company that paid 20% corporation tax, whilst paying similarly high taxes on a similarly high salary?

[marrs]

I don't understand what you're arguing for.

If Facebook shut down UK operations then, for starters, Facebook would be paying no tax at all in the UK and Ireland would gain the difference.

If the Facebook UK staff relocated to Dublin then the loss to the UK economy would be exponentially worse.

[mootothemax]

>If the Facebook UK staff relocated to Dublin then the loss to the UK economy would be exponentially worse.

Can anyone say that for certain?

How do you know, for example, that the same staff they'd employ wouldn't end up working for a company that does pay a large amount of corporation tax, leaving the UK's tax coffers substantially better off than they'd be otherwise?

[marrs]

I'm not saying they wouldn't - I'm sure they probably would - but that wouldn't stop there being 362 fewer roles in the UK.

If the industry in the UK continues to grow then yes we would be better off, but the fear is that more companies would learn from Facebook's example and relocate, taking the growth with them.