6 UK Water Firms Pay No Tax

What a sweet deal for some UK water firms whereby they pay no tax following in the footsteps of many other corporations like Starbucks. Over the past decade, water bills have soared by 82%, more than double the rate of inflation. Despite making over £1.5 billion in profits, water bills are set to rise again this year.

British water companies are evading millions of pounds in tax by the fraudulent method of getting loans from their owners abroad and listing themselves as under debt.

Following a public outcry over billions of pounds of corporate tax avoidance in Britain, involving names such as Google and Starbucks, research group Corporate Watch said that six British water companies have taken out high-interest loans from their owners through the Channel Islands stock exchange so that they could dodge tax using a legal loophole that reduces taxable profits in proportion to interest payments abroad.

That means their owners get fully untaxed profits from Britain by pretending that their subsidiaries in the country are under debt.

According to Corporate Watch, the six water companies of Northumbria, Yorkshire, Anglia, Thames, South Staffs and Sutton and East Surrey have got £3.4 billion in loans from overseas.

The group said the Northumbrian case is the “most brazen” as it has promised an 11 percent interest on a loan of over £1 billion from a Hong Kong-based group that belongs to Li Ka-shing, the world’s ninth-richest person.

The situation also directly affects British tax-payers who should foot the bill for the high-interest loans taken out by water companies.

Corporate Watch said water companies could secure loans with much lower interests if they were government-run adding the current situation is costing British consumers an additional £2 billion a year.

Source: PressTV

$36 Trillion of Stock Certificates Potentially Destroyed By Hurrucane Sandy

The DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corp) owned by the FED, is the clearing house for Wall Street that is responsible for storing over £36 trillion work of share certificates. These paper certificates unfortunately are stored in a vault in lower Manhattan which is currently submerged after Hurricane Sandy. Who knows when the water will be pumped out and how many share certificates are damaged.

Trillions of dollars worth of stock certificates and other paper securities that were stored in a vault in lower Manhattan may have suffered water damage from Superstorm Sandy.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., an industry-run clearing house for Wall Street, said the contents of its vault “are likely damaged,” after its building at 55 Water Street “sustained significant water damage” from the storm that battered New York City’s financial district earlier this week.

The vault contains certificates registered to Cede & Co., a subsidiary of DTCC, as well as “custody certificates” in sealed envelopes that belong to clients.

The DTCC provides “custody and asset servicing” for more than 3.6 million securities worth an estimated $36.5 trillion, according to its website.

“At this point, it is premature to make an accurate assessment as to the full impact of the water damage nor would it be helpful to project on what specific actions need to be taken with respect to our vault,” said DTCC Chief Executive Michael Bodson in a statement. “We are aggressively working on this situation to minimize disruption to our clients and will provide additional updates as more information becomes available.”

Bodson said the DTCC’s computer records are intact and that the corporation has “detailed inventory files of the contents of the vault.”

The building remains inaccessible, but the lower floors are believed to be flooded. The full extent of the damage cannot be assessed until power is restored and the building is deemed safe to enter.

The DTCC has been operating from remote facilities since the onset of the storm and has maintained clearing, settlement and other services that are crucial to the functioning of Wall Street, according to Bodson.

Bodson said the DTCC is working with couriers to ensure that all deliveries are rerouted to a facility in Brooklyn, and the group expects all other services related to physical securities processing to resume “in the next several days,” he added.

 

Source: CNN

US Water Bills Set To Triple

A basic requirement in life is water. It looks in future years this is going to be a lot more expensive. A story is coming out of the US regarding the cost of water tripling. As if gas prices rising isn’t enough. The time to upgrade the water system was 6-7 years ago. The timing is just lousey.

A shocking new report about the nation’s crumbling drinking water system says that Americans should expect their bills to double or triple to cover repairs just to keep their faucets pouring. That means adding up to $900 a year more for water, nearly equal the amount of the newly extended payroll tax cut.

Fixing and expanding underground drinking water systems will cost over $1 trillion in the next 25 years and users will get socked with the bill, according to the American Water Works Association.

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Families can expect to pay at least $300-$550 more for water in taxes and fees just to keep their current systems operating. Add growth and improved systems, and that bill jumps to $900 for a family of three, said the report.

Currently, Americans pay about $400 a month in water taxes and fees.