主题：为什么我们不能放弃国有企业：试论公平与发展 -- 冷酷的哲学

In the case of Northern & Shell, owners of Channel 5, the Express, OK! Magazine and others, before 2009, some of the company's subsidiaries in the UK had been lending each other money totalling 804m.

There was no obvious tax advantage on these transactions to be had in the UK.

Northern & Shell then set up a company in Luxembourg and transferred the loans there. Interest payments on those loans left the UK, leaving lower profits available for taxation by HMRC.

In Luxembourg, that money was effectively taxed at less than 1%, which meant Northern & Shell had sheltered profits which would otherwise have generated 6m in UK corporation tax.

Richard Brooks said of the practice: "The company puts its money into Luxembourg and borrows it back. It just sends money round in a circle and picks up a tax break on the way."

In a statement to the programme Northern & Shell said: "Our strategy is to comply with relevant regulations whilst minimising the tax burden for Northern & Shell and our customers. The board considers it entirely proper that Northern & Shell endeavours to structure its tax affairs in a tax efficient manner."

Tax expert Richard Murphy said of the practice: "All absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, legal. I am still able to ask the question, is this acceptable? This is purely artificial structuring which is designed to undermine the tax revenues of the UK."