Tax competiveness: certainty is key

The Vita Group trades in 25 countries, therefore tax certainty in these many countries is an important issue for the group. Although the choice of locations for our manufacturing plants is often driven by the location of our customers, their choice of location is typically driven by the desire to keep cost low and this includes tax costs. Assuming all other factors are even, if one country has a lower rate of tax than their neighbour we are more likely to establish business in the lower taxed country than in the higher one. So the Chancellor's announcement of the tax rate cut to 26% is not only good news for our current UK operations, it is a helpful factor in encouraging us to site future operations in the UK.

I was also pleased about the Chancellor's announcement on the future UK corporation tax rates because it provides a degree of certainty to the group over our likely UK tax liability for a number of years to come. It is this certainty over the UK tax system that has been lacking over the past four or five years as the debate over the future of the CFC regime has been inching forwards. I am pleased to see certainty on those issues also getting closer.

Stephen Finn, Head of Group Tax, The Vita Group