Starbucks branches hit by tax protests The store was transformed into a domestic violence refuge as the protest sought to highlight the "disproportionate" effect that the coalition's cuts to the public sector are having on women. UK Uncut said it wanted to highlight the "disproportionate" impact of the Government's spending cuts on women. Sarah Greene, a UK Uncut activist, said: "The Government could easily bring in billions that could fund vital services by clamping down." The managing director of Starbucks UK, Kris Engskov, on Thursday made an unprecedented offer to pay an extra £10m to HMRC each year, "until we are paying corporation tax at a material rate." Up until now, Starbucks has insisted that its UK business does not make a profit because of the high rents it pays for its shops, and therefore has paid little corporation tax. The coffee chain also uses a number of perfectly legal mechanisms to further reduce the tax it pays, including handing a 4.7pc licensing fee to a separate arm of Starbucks in the Netherlands for image rights.