I usually avoid any sort of confrontational post and this is not meant to be either confrontational nor controversial. However I have always had an aversion to injustice. So when the Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the big companies (singling out Amazon) for not paying tax and called for the abolition of zero hours contracts for workers, I agreed with him and thought nothing further of it.
Then a lot of criticism arose because the church invests some of its £8 billion of investments in Amazon. According to The Financial Times, the Church of England fund has become the top world performer with a return on assets of 17.1% boosted by investment in global equities and private equity. The Church also uses zero hours contracts.
Then whist considering the criticisms and trying to justify to a friend what the Archbishop had said it suddenly occurred to me that the Church doesn't pay tax either. It is exempt.
Amazon acts within the law (whether one likes the law or not) as does the Church (whether one likes the law or not).
Perhaps when the Government finds a way of making companies like Amazon pay tax it should also remove the exemption for the Church.
