I wrote a letter to npower's CEO, Paul Massara, which you can read below. But first, an observation, backed by numerous studies, written about by mediators, marriage counselors, therapists, and understood by any parent that has ever tried to get a child to do what they're told: when you demand that somebody do something, you rarely get the result you want. Instead, you either get defensiveness, rebellion, spite, or resentment. You may get temporary obedience, but it rarely lasts, and it never results in the change that you really want. In this case, what we want is for npower to want to pay taxes in the UK. Because that is my end goal, I took a slightly different approach in my letter to Mr. Massara.
If you want to express yourself to npower, but don't think making demands will help, feel free to use as much of my text as you like.
Letter to npower about Tax Avoidance
From a corporation's standpoint, it makes sense to keep as much money as possible, at least in the short term. That's why loopholes in tax laws that allow you to channel money through other countries, who have lower tax burdens, makes sense on paper. And while everybody in your industry is doing it, it can be difficult to see the advantage to playing straight. The truth is, as long as nobody knows you're playing straight, there is no obvious advantage - it looks like your competitors will be able to offer cheaper prices because they get to keep more of their money, and this puts you at a disadvantage when competing with them.
Now that your activities are out, however, I think it will only be a matter of time before everybody knows what's going on with your competitors. That's why now is a brilliant opportunity for you to do something new; something brave; something your customers will love you for.
When a company pays taxes in the country that it does business in, it has several impacts. You are aware of the most obvious one - it lowers your profit margins. But it also leaves more money in the pockets of the people who drive the economy, which gives them more to spend. The result is a healthier economy, with more people spending more of their income, which drives higher prices, more transactions, and greater flexibility for your customers. All that happens regardless of whether people know you pay your taxes or not.
In addition, if people know you pay your taxes, and you talk about paying your taxes as a means to helping ensure that people get to pay fewer taxes themselves, thus keeping more money moving through the system, you then have a PR opportunity to expose how you're the only company in your industry that invests in the UK. You're the only company putting country over profits. You're the only company helping to rebuild the economy.
And that will drive more customers to you, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The long term benefits of happy customers are well known - more customers, paying higher prices, staying with you longer. By talking about paying taxes, you can change the game that you and your competitors are playing, and put them all on the back foot for the next 12 months, until they figure out how you've done it. During that time, you can take the increased good will that is generated by your actions and use it to push more customer satisfaction improvements.
You have a real opportunity here, although it may not look like it. I urge you to seize it before we, the people, push our government into forcing you to pay taxes where you do business, because once that happens, you won't be able to change the game any more, you'll simply have lost that revenue, with no benefit. The right thing, and the best thing will coincide more and more frequently as people realize they have power and can be heard. Ride that wave now, and you won't risk being drowned by it, later.
Thank you,
<your name>
<your contact details>
No comments:
Post a Comment