By Peter Evans
LONDON-- Starbucks Corp. plans to move its headquarters for
Europe, Middle East and Africa to London from Amsterdam and will
have to pay more U.K. tax as a result, the world's biggest
coffee-store chain said Wednesday.
Seattle-based Starbucks has come under fire in the U.K. in
recent years over accusations of avoiding corporation tax payments.
The company was forced, along with Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc.,
to appear before a U.K. parliamentary hearing last year to explain
its tax affairs.
According to the testimony of corporate officials and written
statements supplied to the hearing, Starbucks paid GBP8.6 million
($14.4 million) in U.K. corporation tax between 1998 and 2012. At
the time, Starbucks said it had acted "ethically" in its U.K. tax
payments.
Starbucks said the U.K. move was motivated by a desire to
operate from its biggest and fastest-growing European market,
Britain. "This will mean we pay more tax in the U.K.," the company
said in a statement.
The move will take place by the end of the year and result in a
number of senior executives relocating to London, the company said.
The company also said it planned to open another 100 stores in the
U.K. this year.
"London is the perfect place to grow our European business,"
said Kris Engskov, Starbucks' president for the EMEA region.
Starbucks opened its first store in Europe in 1998 and now has
more that 2,000 outlets in 35 countries.
Starbucks is the latest company to move their European or global
headquarters to London, following a change to tax regulations aimed
at encouraging companies to locate to the U.K. by giving them tax
breaks.
Advertising giant WPP PLC and publisher UBM PLC both moved to
the capital from Dublin last year.
Write to Peter Evans at peter.evans@wsj.com
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