The town center of the south Wales community of Crickhowell, which wants to be considered “offshore” for tax purposes.
The picturesque market town of Crickhowell in Wales does not have a reputation for international finance and accounting.
Almost all the stores are small independent businesses, and almost all of their customers are local townspeople and tourists. The only market fluctuations take place in the actual market, in the main town square.
But recently a group of Crickhowell shop keepers decided to take an unusual step: join together and move their businesses “offshore” for tax purposes.
Using the same creative accountancy techniques perfected by multi-national corporations, the town’s small business owners are setting up their own legal tax haven. So far a bakery, a local coffee shop, a book shop and an optician among others have joined in.
The idea is to draw attention to how multinationals use these legal loopholes to avoid paying their fair share, leaving smaller businesses and individual British citizens to make up the difference.
Jeff Thomas runs Crickhowell Adventure, the town’s camping and hiking store, which has joined the effort. He told PRI’s The World that he had a message for the government in London: “Take another look at the tax laws, change the system, close some loopholes. [Let us have] more large companies paying a sensible rate of tax.”
The offshore plan began with a BBC documentary team, who originally suggested that businesses like Thomas’ might be able to imitate multinationals. But according to Thomas, it has now taken on a life of its own: “Because we found out so much about [tax loopholes] and it’s made us so mad, it’s now self-propagating.”
So far the scheme has also proved popular with townspeople as well. Thomas says he has had “tons and tons” of support from customers and on social media. The views of the tax office are not yet known.