On 28 February, Tesco Group Plc. ended a profitable fiscal year. The report on the website of the company says that in Hungary, its total income was 1 689 million Pounds (GDP), it had 176 stores and employed 20 097 people. The report also says that despite the economic downturn, Tesco’s selling rates did not dwindle.
In the 2010 fiscal year Tesco Group Plc. – that is the whole group- made a 3176 million GDP profit before the deduction of tax and accounted a 840 million GDP tax which means 24.6 %.
According to the annual report, Tesco’s overall net income in Hungary was 582.5 billion HUF. Its profit before the deduction of tax was 9.9 billion HUF on the basis of which it paid 162 million HUF of corporate income tax and special tax in Hungary which amounts to a 1.6 % tax rate.
One reason why Tesco paid such low taxes is that it has a branch in Switzerland which made a profit of 7410 million HUF in the 2010 fiscal year and paid 133 million HUF of tax abroad. Due to this, the base tax could be reduced by 7.4 billion HUF.
In reality, Tesco paid only 57 million HUF corporate income tax and 105 million HUF special tax, as the company’s public report of the 2010 fiscal year says.
On the whole, the taxation data on the whole group level and on the Hungarian level are in sharp contrast. There is no need to highlight the difference between 24.6 % and 1.6 %.
Despite its high level of income, Tesco paid as much tax as 20-25 wealthy entrepreneurs had to pay, even though the economic and social importance of a company seeking a dominant position on the market is much bigger than that of a few smaller enterprises.
