United Utilities Group PLC – Annual report – 31 March 2023
Industry: utilities
Corporate governance report (extract)
UK tax policies and objectives
Consistent with our wider business objectives, we are committed to acting in a responsible manner in relation to our tax affairs.
Our tax policies and objectives, which are approved by the board on an annual basis, ensure that we:
- only engage in reasonable tax planning aligned with our commercial activities and we always comply with what we believe to be both the letter and the spirit of the law;
- do not engage in marketed, artificial or abusive tax avoidance;
- do not use tax havens for tax avoidance purposes, including not taking advantage of any related secrecy rules which can apply to tax havens;
- are committed to an open, transparent and professional relationship with HMRC based on mutual trust and collaborative working; and
- maintain a robust governance and risk management framework to ensure that these policies and objectives are fully complied with and applied at all levels.
We expect to fully adhere to the HMRC framework for co-operative compliance.
Our Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has responsibility for tax governance with oversight from the board.
The CFO is supported by a specialist team of tax professionals with many years of tax experience within the water sector and led by the head of tax.
The head of tax has day-to-day responsibility for managing the group’s tax affairs and engages regularly with key stakeholders from around the group in ensuring that tax risk is proactively managed. Where appropriate, she will also engage with both external advisers and HMRC to provide additional required certainty with the aim of ensuring that any residual risk is typically low. All significant tax issues are reported to the board regularly.
Consistent with the group’s general risk management framework, all tax risks are assessed for the likelihood of occurrence and the negative financial or reputational impact on the group and its objectives, should the event occur. In any given period, the key tax risk is likely to be the introduction of unexpected legislative or tax practice changes, which lead to increased cash outflow, which has not been reflected in the current regulatory settlement. The group is committed to actively engaging with relevant authorities in order to manage any such risk.
In any given year, the group’s effective cash tax rate on underlying profits may fluctuate from the standard UK rate mainly due to the available tax deductions on capital investment. These deductions are achieved as a result of utilising tax incentives, which have been explicitly put in place by successive governments precisely to encourage such investment. This reflects responsible corporate behaviour in relation to tax.
Under the regulatory framework the group operates within, the majority of any benefit from reduced tax payments will typically not be retained by the group but will pass to customers; reducing their bills. For 2022/23, the impact of tax deductions on capital investment alone reduced average household bills by around £20.
The group’s principal subsidiary, United Utilities Water Limited (UUW), operates solely in the UK and its customers are based here. In addition, all of the group’s profits are taxable in the UK.
Every year, the group pays significant contributions to the public finances on its own behalf as well as collecting and paying further amounts for its 5,000 strong workforce. Details of the total payments for 2023 of around £229 million are set out below.
The above tax policy disclosure meets the group’s statutory requirement under Paragraph 16(2) of Schedule 19 of Finance Act 2016 to publish its UK tax strategy for the year ended 31 March 2023.
See our website for our latest separate annual tax report, which includes further details in relation to the following key areas:
- How much tax we pay;
- How we ensure that we pay the right tax at the right time; and
- How we ensure that our tax affairs are transparent for all our stakeholders.
Recognising the group’s ongoing commitment to paying its fair share of tax and acting in an open and transparent manner in relation to its tax affairs, we were delighted to have retained the Fair Tax Mark independent certification for a fourth year, having been only the second FTSE 100 company to be awarded the Fair Tax Mark in July 2019.
Accounts examples 