Lloyds TSB - staying onshore

I interviewed Lloyds TSB group FD Helen Weir this week (sorry for the tardy link). She had some interesting comments to make about tax, especially with regard to HSBC’s recent noises about moving out of the UK. Here’s the relevant section;

HSBC’s finance issues have also been in the news recently, with a senior official at the bank suggesting it might move offshore due to the UK’s declining competitiveness on tax.

‘We are primarily UK-based. I am not sure where we would go to offshore,’ says Weir, implying that if Lloyds TSB were even thinking about similar moves, the plans are not exactly well advanced.

But she adds: ‘We are one of the largest UK taxpayers and operate within the rules set down by HM Revenue & Customs .We take our tax paying responsibility seriously, but are not in the game of disadvantaging shareholders by paying more tax than we are required to pay.’

An admirably robust point of view