Christian lobby group targets tax justice during Lent
Christianity Uncut calls for Christians to avoid tax dodging organisations for Lent
A campaigning Christian charity has encouraged Christians to do no business with tax-dodging corporations, such as Amazon and Starbucks, for the duration of Lent.
On Ash Wednesday (13 February), Chris Howson, a Church of England priest in Sunderland, anointed his local branch of Starbucks with ashes, which are traditionally used as a call to repentance, in a symbolic start to the campaign.
Christianity Uncut, a network of anti-capitalist Christians, argue that a crackdown on tax avoidance is a better way of reducing the national deficit than cutting public services and the welfare state.
Chris Howson said: ‘Tax justice is a pressing issue. Amazon, with its aggressive tax avoidance policy, can easily out-compete British-based high street firms. For Lent, there will be no more cheap books for me from this tax dodger! As for Starbucks, not only has it evaded millions of pounds of corporation tax over the last few years, it has tried to publicly bribe the government, instead of simply paying its tax.’
