Kinder Egg firm makes £1.5bn in UK… but doesn’t pay a SINGLE penny in tax
The multinational company keeps reporting a net loss in the UK despite raking in huge profits
THE makers of Kinder Surprise eggs have paid no UK corporation tax since 2008 — while raking in £1.44billion here.
Italian choc giant Ferrero keeps reporting a net loss for operations in Britain.
The revelation sparked fresh outrage at the firm — as The Sun yesterday exposed how Romania’s poor are paid 22p an hour to make toys for the eggs.
Hard-up families who get kids as young as six to toil away branded it “slave labour”.
Ferrero has based its HQ in Luxembourg — and last night Labour MP Margaret Hodge blasted its legal UK tax ruse as “immoral and reprehensible”.
Last year its British division had record sales of £305.8million. Gross profit was £112million. But it recorded a net loss of £15million.
A spokesman explained: “Our long-term investment means that, at present, we are recording a pre-tax loss in this market.”
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The last time it paid corporation tax here was when it coughed up £419,000 in August 2008. Its sales back then were £137.1million.
Tax expert Robert Leach said: “The company’s method of operation is routinely to make a loss in the UK.”
He added, pointedly: “This would mean that the company is not a going concern.”