funding for refuges and rape crisis centres faced cuts unless companies paid their fair share of tax. HMRC estimates around £32bn was lost to tax avoidance in 2011. Greene said the government could easily bring in billions that could fund vital services by clamping down on tax avoidance. The group, which rose to prominence after staging a sit-in at Vodafone stores, Topshop and Fortnum & Mason, turned its attentions to Starbucks last month after an investigation by Reuters discovered the company had paid only £8.6m in corporation tax since launching in the UK in 1998, despite cumulative sales of £3bn. Longstanding Uncut campaigner Anna Walker said “We’ve chosen to really highlight the impact of the cuts on women. So there is going to be a real focus on transforming Starbucks into those services that are being cut by the government … [such as] refuges and crèches. “Starbucks is a really great target because it is on every high street across the country and that’s what UK Uncut finds really important: people can take action in their local areas,” she said. Several international organizations have faced criticism over their UK accounts, with Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google and Ikea all paying little or no corporation tax despite large British operations. However, according to pollsters at YouGov’s BrandIndex, Starbucks has suffered the deepest damage to its