Panasonic will soon move their headquarters in Europe from the United Kingdom to Amsterdam, as early as in the month of October due to the approach of Brexit. The main idea behind this is to prevent the possible issues of tax that are linked to the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. This is what the Chief Executive of Panasonic’s Europe Division, Laurent Abadie said.
In the time leading up to 2019 March, quite a number of multinational firms have mentioned about their plans to get jobs to move out of the United Kingdom. Japanese financial companies have expressed their intentions to get their main bases that lie in the European Union away from London.
The decision from Panasonic was primarily driven by a fear that Japan could even start to consider the United Kingdom as a tax haven if it goes on to cut down corporate tax rates in order to attract business. Now, if Panasonic happens to pay less amount of tax in the UK that could make them liable for a paying up quite a heavy tax bill in Japan.
Mr. Laurent Abadie even mentioned to the Nikkei Asian Review about Panasonic’s constant consideration for making this move for the last 15 months, due to concerns related to Brexit, like their access towards the free flow of goods as well as towards people might get severely affected.
Panasonic’s division in Europe, later on, issued a statement to confirm that they would be transferring their regional headquarters from the region of Bracknell in the United Kingdom to Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 1st October this year.
The organization believes the step is essential when it considers the improvement this would bring about in efficiency and also the cost competitiveness. As far as the decision has an effect on the employees are concerned, the organization said that less than 10 people could get adversely affected out of the total strength of 30. The statement even went on to add that none of the business operations of Panasonic in the UK would be affected by the headquarters move.