British cut to corporation tax bid to lure firms back

GLOBAL advertising giant WPP is considering moving its tax base back to Britain from Ireland after the British government yesterday outlined a multi-year plan to lower its corporation tax levels and relax tax-haven abuse legislation in its latest budget.

WPP — which includes such marketing and PR leaders as Hill & Knowlton, J Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather among its subsidiaries — moved its tax base to Dublin in late 2008 in order to escape the British corporate tax regime and benefit from the Irish 12.5% rate.

In one of the most widely anticipated aspects of his budget, British Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to cut the British corporation tax rate from its current level of 28% to 23% over the next three years — decreasing by 2% this year and by 1% every year until 2014.