On Mon, 04 Jan 2016 16:23:03 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

It remains a fact that most would expect a company trading in the UK to
pay UK taxes

Which just shows how little most people understand the modern global
world.

"A company trading in the UK" might be a UK company - or it might be a
German company or a French company or wherever. If they're in the EU,
then that means that they'll be paying corptax in the country they book
their profits in. Free movement of capital, free movement of goods, free
movement of services - three of the four basic tenets of the 1957 Treaty
of Rome, along with free movement of people.

A non-EU company trading in the EU would typically have an EU subsidiary,
which would trade with the parent - and it would be the profits of that
subsidiary which would be taxed wherever.

A non-EU company who only do a small amount of trade here would be
subject to all sorts of import duties and VAT paperwork, which would make
trading here very expensive.

If ever the UK is ****ing stupid enough to leave the EU and not remain
within EEA or EFTA or some similar free-trade network, then UK businesses
will be non-EU businesses for the other EU/EEA/EFTA markets. And if we
stay within EEA/EFTA, there's absolutely no point in leaving the EU.