[ianch99]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Seems the corporate world are not all singing from Dave's songsheet:



Linky

Some context on some of these "business leaders":

Pro-Brexit bosses include retirees and tax avoidance experts

Business figures who signed an open letter supporting Brexit include tax avoidance specialists, dozens of retirees and the publisher of a book about Ukip introduced by Nigel Farage.

The list of more than 300 people also includes the bosses of dormant companies and a law firm that admits leaving the European Union could lead to a repeal of workers’ rights.

One signatory is John Kersey, managing director of Preston hair salon Kersey Hairdressing, a business with net assets of £313.

The list also includes the bosses of a clutch of firms with a history of facilitating tax avoidance. Robert Hiscox, honorary president of Hiscox Insurance, has been an outspoken defender of tax avoidance, having moved his company to Bermuda to slash its tax bill.

Fellow signatory Martin Bellamy is the chairman and chief executive of Salamanca Group, which advertises “dynastic estate-planning” for “ultra-high net worth families”. It offers advice on ways on offshore trusts and foreign investments for those keen on “passing wealth or holding wealth for the next generation” or those who want to keep their affairs “outside the public domain”.

Salamanca also boasts of setting up offshore employee benefit trusts, a tax-efficient means of paying staff that the Treasury has said it wants to crack down on.

Another signatory, Clive Thorne, is a partner at Wedlake Bell, a law firm that offers “imaginative” tax-planning strategies for business “both onshore and offshore”. In an article on the company’s website, the firm admits that leaving the EU could result in a raft of workers’ rights being abolished.

“A number of key employment rights derive from EU legislation, in particular those relating to equal opportunities, holiday and working time. A departure from the EU could allow such legislation to be weakened or even repealed,” the article says.