Chris Tobin: In an age of austerity, companies have a moral duty to pay

The Protesters' View

This type of tax avoidance is not just about a company organising its affairs.

It means armies of accountants and lawyers – who are only affordable for rich individuals and corporations – going to extraordinary lengths to get around the law.

While corporations using tricks and loopholes to avoid tax isn't illegal, it is certainly not intended by the law, and is quite different from getting an ISA or a joint bank account. In an age of austerity, there is a moral component. We want our actions to shame corporations, to communicate that this is completely unacceptable behaviour. UKUncut also targets the Government. We are not all in the cuts together. The Treasury should be collecting the £25bn avoided by British corporations and individuals, instead of cutting public services for the poorest and most vulnerable. We have picked targets that expose not only the scale of corporate tax avoidance but also the Government's indulgence of it. Sir Philip Green is now advising the Coalition on spending, and he is a tax avoider. Some 13,000 jobs are to go over the next four years at the tax office, making it toothless in the face of such corporate tax avoidance.

Chris Tobin is a a member of, and spokesman for, UK Uncut