There is a strong belief that if the United Kingdom lowers corporate tax any further after the integration of Brexit next year, a lot of companies in Japan would see the United Kingdom as a sanctuary in terms of dealing with tax payments if the country begins to start cutting tax rates so as to draw in more businesses.
If this takes place, it may cause Panasonic to face back taxes by the central government. In Layman’s terms, it would be held accountable for a bigger tax bill in Japan.
This electronics giant had been planning this move for an average of fifteen months and these were brought about by Brexit-related concerns that included the free transfer of products as well as people coming for employment.
The Chief Executive of Panasonic’s European Branch, Laurent Abadie, stated that there were also several reasons that Panasonic was planning the move and one of them included a strong desire to keep up with the improved market efficiency plus remain competitive while at the same time having an easy access of the different available markets in Europe.
Of course, another issue that lingered was how the move would affect employment and would it be massive. The company also mentioned in a statement that regardless of the move, no fewer than ten employees would be affected out of a total staff of thirty employees.
The statement also mentions that not a single Panasonic UK business operation would be affected by the EU headquarters move.
Despite the sound of what Brexit is said to achieve for a lot of businesses in the UK, there are still several worries about its uncertainty once it is initiated next year.
Hiroaki Nakanishi, the chairman of the Japanese business federation, Keidanren, had stated that everyone was still very concerned. As he spoke to the Financial Times during an interview, he emphasized that not only Panasonic but also several Japanese businesses that were stationed in the EU had become frustrated just like several other businesses in the United Kingdom.
This frustration was brought about mainly by the lack of any clarity over what kind of Brexit that the United Kingdom will accomplish once their contract runs out next year.
During the interview, Nakanishi also further mentioned that numerous circumstances had conversed from the possibility of no Brexit taking place to suddenly just leaping into Brexit without making a single deal whatsoever.
Some other firms including Airbus, Japanese banking giant Nomura Holdings, and Daiwa are a few of the business firms that also had no intention of maintaining their EU headquarters in London and this is all based on the uncertainty generated by Brexit.