Online adverts for the Big Tax Turnoff paid for by 38 Degrees members.

175,000 of us have signed the Npower petition against tax dodging and now it’s time to teach Npower a lesson. We asked members, who were also Npower customers, if we should all switch to another energy supplier - and over 98% of them said yes.

Are you an Npower customer? Would you be interested in switching away too? It’s a simple two step process and if enough of us switch away, Npower will really sit up and take notice.

Click here and switch to a new supplier

For those of us who aren’t Npower customers, there are still ways to get involved.

The more people who hear about the switch, the more powerful the message to Npower, so spread the word far and wide. Hundreds of 38 Degrees members have also chipped in and paid for a series of online adverts exposing Npower’s tax dodging ways and encouraging their customers to leave them.

Big companies like Npower use sophisticated targeted advertising to reach customers online. By working with an agency we placed targeted adverts in the same way Npower do. But our adverts will be Npower’s worst nightmare – instead of giving them reasons to stay, ours will tell them to switch away.  They will be running for the whole week, meaning that we can get these adverts seen by hundreds of thousands of potential Npower customers.

Political wrangling. That’s what’s going on in Westminster right now. The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill is on its final trip through the House of Commons – and goodness, it’s causing a stir.

It’s all over the media. No.10 is making contradictory statements. MPs are being lobbied and counter-lobbied. And probably for one of the only times in their lives, people across the country are glued to BBC Parliament, waiting to find out if they’ll be granted the right to marry the men and women they love.

Among all the white noise, it’s these ordinary people who matter the most. While the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill is a huge step forward, it’s not perfect. There’s a nasty bit of discrimination left in it – pension companies will still be able treat you differently if your marriage isn’t ‘traditional’.

Imagine this: you pay into your pension your whole life, and you want to know your husband or wife will be provided for when you die. But simply because you’re married to someone of the same sex, employers and pension companies are allowed to pay out a tiny fraction of the amount they’d have to cough up to a mixed-sex couple.

In late 2012, John Walker took his pension provider to court. John is 61. He’s been with his partner for 20 years. If he dissolved his civil partnership and married a woman today, she’d be entitled to £41,000 per year if he died – but his pension scheme was only willing to give £500 per year to his long-term partner.

Today, MPs can stop this happening again. Amendment no. 49 , tabled by Dr Caroline Lucas MP, will be debated in a few hours. If enough MPs vote for it, pension companies will have to start treating every marriage equally. It’s a simple change, but one which would mean everything to the people affected.

Email your MP right now to tell them to vote the right way on the amendment. Ask them to pause for a minute, and to consider a small but important change to the bill which, at its heart, is purely about fairness. As marriage becomes equal, pension policy should too.

Here’s the link to email your MP, and to share via social media:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-pensions-discrimination

Update 20/05/2013: we’re back up and running! The site, and the switch away from Npower, should now be working normally. If you do run across any new issues, please do get in touch – and once again, we’re really sorry if the glitches meant you couldn’t join in with the campaign!

38 Degrees has been having some technical problems today, which has meant the website hasn’t been working reliably since lunchtime. We’re really sorry if this has meant you haven’t been able to join in with the campaign to get Npower to pay their taxes, or get involved with any other 38 Degrees campaigns.

Experts are working on the problem to get it sorted and are hoping that it will be fixed by tomorrow. We’ll share updated information about when the website will be fixed as soon as we have it and of course, let people know as soon as we’re up and running again!

In the meantime, if you’re an Npower customer and want to switch away from them to an energy company that pays their taxes, you can do that here: http://action.38degrees.org.uk/npower

Is it time to teach Npower a lesson? 3 weeks ago they were exposed for not paying a single penny of corporation tax, while channeling UK profits through Malta. But they still haven’t accepted they’ve done anything wrong. And, they keep refusing to meet us to discuss our concerns.

Luckily Npower customers have got the trump card. We can hit them where it hurts: together we can take our custom elsewhere.

So, time to vote – shall we launch a mass switch-off away from Npower now? Voting closes in 48 hours, so please vote now:

YES       NO

I’ve been emailing the chief executive of Npower, Paul Massara. The whole conversation is pasted below. There’s been some progress, but in my view his response is just not good enough.

Here are the headlines:

- He’s refusing to meet with 38 Degrees members, even those who are Npower customers
- He still won’t accept that funneling UK profits through Malta to dodge tax is wrong
- He makes seemingly contradictory excuses. On the one hand he says that “npower does not engage in tax avoidance” but on the other hand he claims that “HMRC is well aware of the possibility of UK companies using interest payments as a way of reducing their tax bill”. He then seems to admit they were using Malta because it was “efficient” for avoiding tax, but that it’s German taxes they were dodging so we shouldn’t worry about it!

There are some (small?) positive signs too:

- He says he accepts that he needs to be more transparent about their tax affairs and has pledged to sign Npower up to apply the “CBI’s tax principles”
- He claims that they’ve stopped using Malta. But won’t confirm that they’re not using new tax dodge routes instead – it looks like money is now being channelled via the Netherlands.

What do you think? Shall we launch a mass switch away from Npower now?

YES       NO

There are around 30,000 Npower customers who are 38 Degrees members – that means there’s enough of us to have a real impact. 38 Degrees can launch a website this week which would make it easy for Npower customers to switch to other gas and electricity companies in their thousands.

It’s the last thing that Npower’s CEO will want. But it’ll work. And it will also send a crystal clear message to other companies. Tax dodging has consequences.

Shall we launch a people-powered mass switch-off away from Npower now?

YES       NO

Thanks for everything you do,

David
Executive Director, 38 Degrees

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: David Babbs
Date: 13 May 2013 21:31
Subject: Re: RWE npower – Tax Issues
To: Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com

Dear Paul,

Thanks for your email and attached letter.

I’m disappointed that you still refuse to meet with Npower customers who have joined this campaign. I’m sure that your “customer council” serves a useful purpose for you, but in this case there are tens of thousands of your customers how have specific concerns about how your business is operating.  I’m surprised that you don’t think it would be “appropriate” to meet with them.

I’ve explained already that I have consulted our members on how they’d feel about me meeting you without Npower customers being present, and that they voted overwhelmingly that I should only agree to meet if they could also be represented. So I’m afraid I’m not able to meet with you on the terms which you propose.

Your refusal to meet your customers, together with the rest of your letter, suggest to me that you’re still choosing not to engage with the reasons so many of your customers have got involved with this campaign. We’ve not suggested that your channeling of funds via Malta was “illegal”. But whatever the legalities, we believe it’s simply wrong for a company that relies on the goodwill of millions of UK consumers to avoid paying UK taxes in this way. Your emphasis on HMRC’s view that it is legal is therefore not really relevant.

You’ve still not explained why you were using this Maltese route in the first place if not to dodge tax; why you’ve now stopped (anything to do with the German government outlawing a tax dodge structure know within the trade as the “Maltese double whopper”, perhaps?); or what you’re now up to by channeling funds through the Netherlands instead.

I guess your pledge to sign up to the CBI’s tax principles is a step in the right direction. But you haven’t even indicated a firm timetable for this, or explained how this might change your actual behaviour or the amount of tax you pay in the UK.

So, my personal view is that your response is not really satisfactory. Ultimately though it’s the view of your customers and 38 Degrees members that will decide what happens next with the campaign – I’ll be asking them to vote shortly.

I will of course share this correspondence with them as part of that vote. I plan to forward this whole thread of emails as well.

regards,

David

On 9 May 2013 16:01 : Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com wrote:
David,

I attach an open letter to you, 38 Degrees, and all my customers, employees and stakeholders that have been affected by the accusations that my company has avoided corporation tax.

Our offers (of 17 Apr and 2 May) for you to either meet me or our Director of Tax still stand. I am happy to explain why we do not, and will not, engage in tax avoidance.

I very much accept the need to communicate with my customers but I do not believe that selecting only from 38 Degrees members is an appropriate way of identifying people for me to meet. We will continue our ongoing consultation through our Customer Council and other communication channels.

For the past few weeks, I have been taking a lot of time to talk with my employees, my customers and my stakeholders to ensure that they fully understand what we have done and why. Most importantly, I want them, and you, to know that npower is a company to be proud of.

I hope you will take the time to read and pass on to your campaigning members the letter I have attached. It is available freely on our website.

Regards

Paul Massara

(letter was attached but can also be seen on the Npower website)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: David Babbs
Date: 8 May 2013 11:01
Subject: Re: RWE npower – Tax Issues
To: Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com

Dear Paul,

It’s now 6 days since I emailed you last – I wondered if you had a response to my question as to whether you’d agree to a meeting involving some representatives of Npower customers?

In the absence of a reply from you earlier, I have now polled your customers on whether they’d be happy for me to meet you on my own. There’s quite a strong feeling amongst them at least a couple of Npower customers should also be present.

Please let me know,

Thanks
David

On 2 May 2013 16:26, David Babbs wrote:

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I think a meeting between us would be a very good idea. However, I am not sure that the most appropriate format would be for it to be “one to one”. We have over 25,000 npower customers signed up to our petition, who have indicated they are considering switching to another supplier unless they can be satisfied that you are not tax dodging. I am not currently an npower customer, so it would seem a little odd for me to be speaking on all these people’s behalf on my own.

So I wondered if you would consider extending your offer of the meeting to myself + one or two concerned npower customers who have signed our petition? If you are not willing to do this for some reason, then I think what I will probably do is poll everyone to see if they are happy for me attend on my own or not.

I have considered your bullet pointed claims carefully. I have included my response to each of them below. I’m afraid that at present my view is that these are unsubstanitated claims and you haven’t really offered any evidence which would lead to us ending this campaign. I’m happy to discuss in more detail with you what that evidence would look like – either in person if we meet, or by e-mail.

- RWE npower does not engage in tax avoidance

We’ve offered substantial evidence that you do engage in tax avoidance. If you want me, or you customers, to believe your claim that you don’t you will need offer evidence as to why we’re wrong. At present I’m afraid I don’t believe you.

The use of Malta-based Scaris very clearly saved the RWE group tax. We cannot see a motive for routing of funds from Germany to the UK via Malta other than tax avoidance and you have not so far offered one.

- The use of Scaris by RWE did not affect npower’s tax position in the UK in any way at all

Again, I’m afraid at present I don’t believe you and you will have to offer some evidence to back this assertion.

If the £2 billion or more of equity share capital that was committed to Scaris had instead been directly committed to npower its tax position in the UK would have been very different. It would have paid vastly less in interest and so would shave significantly increased its taxable profits in this country. Can you explain why you chose to use the Maltese route instead if not to avoid tax?

- I can confirm that RWE stopped using Scaris during 2012

That’s encouraging, but please can you confirm:
Why this has been done when some of the loans were not due for repayment until 2030? What you are now doing instead?

As I explained previously to Zoe in your press team, if you are now simply routing money through a different tax haven instead of Malta that will not reassure anyone.

- We borrow from our parent group to finance our ongoing operations because they can raise money to lend to us more cheaply than from a UK bank (if we borrowed in the UK, this would increase our interest payments, reduce our profits and so reduce the tax we pay!)

But you did not borrow from your parent group in Germany: you borrowed from another company owned by the group and based in a tax haven, and the rates were not always low: some exceeded 6%. In addition, the parent group invested capital in Scaris to let this happen – capital that could have been made available direct to npower. So this was a financing structure, not a loan and as such cannot be represented as the simple loan arrangement you portray. The only explanation we can see for the use of this Maltese route is tax avoidance – again, please offer an alternative explanation if you have one.

Your argument about borrowing from a UK bank is appropriate: of course you might have done that. But then they would have been taxable on the interest paid and so the revenue would have stayed in the UK. The whole essence of our argument was that profits that should have been taxed in the UK were shifted as a result of the structure you used out of this country – and were not taxable in Germany either. As such your counter-argument does not succeed in making your point that there was no tax lost to the UK; there clearly was.

The fact that you offer an alternative funding arrangement as part of your argument also lets us do the same: we can as a result quite fairly argue that the capital invested in Scaris should instead have been invested in RWE npower and if that had been done more tax would have been due in this country.

- I can confirm that it is only because of the massive investment that my company has made in the UK, and the losses we made in our supply business that resulted in us paying little or no corporation tax. The Government uses tax reliefs as a way of incentivising investment and it is saddening to be criticised for exactly the behaviour that the Government wanted to encourage.

We have not criticised you for investing in the UK or for claiming capital allowances and will not do so. We have criticised you for using offshore structures to avoid tax and for not disclosing your activities in a full set of consolidated, audited accounts for the UK that show the true nature of your total activities in this country and the tax you do or do not pay here. We continue to believe that these are total appropriate criticisms.

All best wishes,
David

On 1 May 2013 16:04, Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com wrote:

Dear David,

I have been forwarded a copy of your email to Zoe Melarkey.

To come back to you on your questions (even though most of these points are in the public domain already): – RWE npower does not engage in tax avoidance

- The use of Scaris by RWE did not affect npower’s tax position in the UK in any way at all

- I can confirm that RWE stopped using Scaris during 2012

- We borrow from our parent group to finance our ongoing operations because they can raise money to lend to us more cheaply than from a UK bank (if we borrowed in the UK, this would increase our interest payments, reduce our profits and so reduce the tax we pay!)

I can confirm that it is only because of the massive investment that my company has made in the UK, and the losses we made in our supply business that resulted in us paying little or no corporation tax. The Government uses tax reliefs as a way of incentivising investment and it is saddening to be criticised for exactly the behaviour that the Government wanted to encourage.

I hope the above points are helpful, but if you require clarification, I’m happy to speak to you on the phone or have a one to one meeting.

Regards

Paul Massara
CEO
RWE npower

From: David Babbs
Date: 30 April 2013 13:40

Subject: our phone conversation a couple of hours ago
To: Zoe.Melarkey@npower.com

Hi Zoe,

Thanks for calling. I just wanted to confirm in writing what we spoke about.

Meeting Paul Massara
As I first explained yesterday, I don’t think it will really help to meet an Npower “tax expert”, as the facts aren’t in dispute here. You accept that our description of your tax affairs is accurate but point out that it’s legal. We have not suggested it’s illegal, but argue that it’s unacceptable. So this isn’t really a technical discussion.

We would like to meet with your CEO, and I’m pleased that you indicated verbally that this would be possible. Once this is confirmed in writing we’ll let our members know they can stop contacting you demanding a meeting.

“No longer using the Maltese route”
You indicated to me, and have indicated to the press, that as of last year npower is no longer channeling funds via Malta. That’s encouraging to hear, but for that to mean an end to the campaign:
1) we’d need to be satisfied that it’s true
2) we’d need to satisfied that you’ve not simply adopted a new accounting method to avoid paying tax in the UK (If “the maltese route” has been replaced with the “Cayman Islands route” or something that’s not going to satisfy our members!)

Let me know if you think you may be in a position to provide this kind of information and we can open up a discussion.

Obviously if you are able to get back to me on these points quickly we’ll reevaluate our next steps, but for now we’ll keep prepping the next stages of the campaign.

All best wishes,
David

A huge joint effort by 38 Degrees members and campaigners across Europe resulted in a ban on bee killing pesticides. Great news, but bees need the right environment to flourish. And that means flowers! Lots of them.

We’re a nation of gardeners and many of us probably do our bit for the bees without realising it. But with a bit more collective effort we could do a great deal more. Hence the great 38 Degrees seed giveaway! If tens of thousands of us fill whatever outside space we have access to with bee friendly flowers, we could tip the balance in favour of our little pollinating friends.

We’ve chosen seeds of native British wildflowers, a mix of white clover, red campion and selfheal. The pollen of these wildflowers are Michelin starred as far as bees are concerned! And they’re easy to grow too.

Simply head here and enter your details to receive a packet of bee friendly wildflower seed, and get planting!

Your seeds should be delivered within three weeks. If they don’t arrive please do drop us a line on emailtheteam@38degrees.org.uk.

While you’re waiting for your seeds to grow, or if you’ve not got a garden but have an iPhone, why not lend a helping hand to science and get bee spotting. Pooter! is a nifty little game for iPhone – spot a bee, snap a picture, upload it to Pooter!, get points, play your friends and contribute to bee population surveys! Every sighting you make with Pooter! is automatically made available to any scientist studying bee decline. Your verified sightings become part of the national dataset for that specific species, making you a bona fide citizen scientist!

Npower are rattled. They’ve seen their huge tax dodge splashed all across the media, and they’re squirming under the pressure of more than 40,000 emails and a 170,000+ signature petition.

Npower’s chief executive has agreed to meet 38 Degrees – but so far, he’s only said he’ll meet with 38 Degrees executive director, David Babbs. He hasn’t agreed to having 38 Degrees members and Npower customers there too.

So what should we do? Should we accept the one-on-one meeting, and let David represent us? Or should we hold out for a wider meeting, where more people can go to push for answers on the energy giant’s tax dodge?

It only takes two minutes to tell us what you think. 38 Degrees members started this campaign together – and now we can decide together what we do next. Click here to have your say.

We know that a meeting alone probably won’t be enough to make Npower change their ways. Flooding their inbox and showing our anger with a huge petition is a great start. But lots of 38 Degrees members have written in with other ideas, and they’re right – there are lots more options on the table.

If we’re going to win, here’s what we can do. We can attack their cherished brand image, and make sure that more and more people across the country think of tax dodging when Npower is mentioned. Or we can hit their bottom line by making it really easy for thousands of people to switch away from Npower as their gas and electricity supplier.

Imagine the chaos in their PR department if we run billboard and newspaper ads up and down the country calling them out on their tax dodge. Or the emergency meetings if they realise that overnight, they’ve lost thousands of customers.

There are plenty of other options too. Whatever we decide to do to turn up the heat on Npower, let’s make sure thousands of us are behind it. Click here to help decide our next steps now.

Npower have been rumbled! Over the past few days a top tax expert, Richard Murphy from Tax Research, has been investigating their accounts. Today the results of that investigation – paid for by donations from 38 Degrees members – are splashed across several pages in the Sun newspaper.

So here’s the likely explanation for why Npower aren’t paying any corporation tax (surprise surprise, it’s not something you’ll see mentioned in any of their own publicity): it seems that they’re funneling profits made in the UK through a shell company in Malta. Why, you ask? Well, it looks like it helped them dodge a whopping £60 million in tax over the last four years!

EMAIL THE NPOWER CEO

SIGN THE PETITION TO GET THEM TO PAY THEIR FARE SHARE

Today 38 Degrees members joined hundreds of people in a “March of the Beekeepers” at Parliament Square.

The demonstration was hosted by 38 Degrees along with Avaaz, Buglife, Environmental Justice Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network UK, RSPB, and the Soil Association.

Certain pesticides called neonicotinoids are being blamed by scientists across the world for the decline in bee numbers.  On Monday, Owen Paterson our environment minister will take part in a big european vote on whether to stop these pesticides being used.  Countries such as France and Italy have already taken steps to ban them, but our government is dragging its heels.

With hundreds of us descending on parliament we showed that not only is there a mountain of evidence against these pesticides but also a huge weight of public opinion in favour of stopping them.

The petitions from all the organisations were delivered to 10 Downing Street.  This included the 285,000 signatures on the 38 Degrees petition.  If you’ve not signed the petition yet, you can do so here.

Can you help spread the word and make sure that everyone is talking about the bees before he goes to vote? Owen will find it hard to vote against a ban if he knows that public opinion is completely against him.

Let’s share the petition on facebook, let’s email our friends and let’s tweet about the bees. Now with over 300,000 signatures, we can make sure the bees have an army of us looking out for them.

Great news! We’ve stopped the government’s plan to spy on everyone’s internet use. Late yesterday Nick Clegg announced he will not allow the “snoopers’ charter” to go ahead.

38 Degrees members moved quickly when we first heard of the plan to collect details of who we call, text, email and which websites we visit. We voted to work together to stop these intrusive and expensive plans.

Together, over the past 18 months:

- nearly 200,000 of us signed the petition to stop government snooping

- tens of thousands of us emailed our MPs

- from Dundee to Penzance, thousands of us met up locally to deliver our massive petition direct to MPs

- nearly 19,000 38 Degrees members raised their concerns directly to the parliamentary committee looking at the government’s plans

- and just last week thousands of us got back in touch with our MPs, calling on them to abandon the plans.

38 Degrees members were a key part of a team which also included great campaigning from Liberty, Privacy International and the Open Rights Group.  We also got support and advice from a number of supportive MPs – particularly Lib Dem Julian Huppert, and Conservative David Davis. David Davis MP even came into the 38 Degrees office to do a live web briefing with 38 Degrees members!

When we started this campaign, we knew it would be hard. The government seemed determined – we’d need a big campaign to turn it around. So collectively we rolled our sleeves up and just kept going. Today we can celebrate a great win for people power!

Campaigns like this don’t cost the earth to run, but they aren’t free. 38 Degrees is 100% independent – so we’ll never take money from big business or government. Instead 38 Degrees relies entirely on donations from members like you, giving one-off donations or small regular sums of £2 or £3 per week.

With your help now, we can take things to a new level. Can you chip in £2 or £3 a week, to help us raise the vital resources needed to dramatically increase our impact over the year ahead (or whatever you can afford).

Click here to give a small amount to 38 Degrees each week via our secure website.

Please do consider chipping in if you can – it really is the only way wins like this are possible. But first of all, please make sure you take a moment to celebrate what we can accomplish when we all act together.