‘We pay our tax’ - Anglian Water

REPORTS in national newspapers claiming that Huntingdon-based utility company Anglian Water paid no corporation tax on its profits were “misleading,” the company said yesterday.

The Observer said the company paid no corporation tax on its regulated water business in the financial year ending in March, having paid �500,000 in the previous year and �1.4m the year before that.

But a spokesman for AW told The Hunts Post yesterday (Tuesday): “Media reports suggesting we haven’t fulfilled our tax obligations are misleading. For tax purposes we are registered in the UK, and we pay our full tax liability in accordance with government rules.

“Last year we contributed over �150 million to the economy through taxes we pay or collect on behalf of the government, made up of things like employers’ taxes, environmental taxes, business rates and fuel duty, among many others.

“We employ almost 4,000 people, and are spending �2.3 billon on the region’s water infrastructure between 2010 and 2015, which helps create and secure jobs as well as support economic growth,” he added.

“We will pay our tax on this in full, but the Government and the UK’s tax regime allow us to defer some tax payments for a period to encourage us to invest as much as we can afford at such an important time for the economy.

“As part of the way we are regulated, any temporary tax benefits we do get from deferring this payment are passed on to our customers. We use this benefit to help keep bills low, at a little more than �1 per day on average.

“To be clear, we will pay our tax bill in full as part of our continuing commitment to paying our way, and to being a responsible UK company.”