Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler tax deals ruled 'illegal'

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Should multinational corporations be allowed to cut deals with governments to reduce their tax? No, says the European Commission. It believes Luxembourg and the Netherlands acted illegally in their dealings with Fiat-Chrysler and Starbucks respectively. Brussels says they were given tax advantages which broke the rules on state aid. The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has ordered Luxembourg and the Netherlands to recover up to 34 million dollars each from Fiat-Chrysler and Starbucks.The Dutch government declared itself "somewhat surprised" at the decision. Starbucks plans to appeal. We speak to Marc Sanders an Amsterdam-based tax adviser, and Michael Devereux, professor of business taxation at Said Business School in the UK. China remains a country with an irresistible appeal for the rest of the world when it comes to doing business. That's despite Beijing's controversial track record on human rights, and cybersecurity. China has confirmed a huge investment in a new nuclear power plant in Britain. It's paying just over nine billion dollars for a one-third stake in the plant, to be built in partnership with EDF of France, at Hinkley Point in Somerset in the south-west of England. We ask Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University what's in this investment for China? We also turn to bonds - basically the act of you or I lending our cash to a government or company, in return for some interest or 'yield'. If you know anything about bonds, you'll probably have heard they're usually a very low risk investment. A safe haven. Somewhat boring even. So why would anyone write a theatrical play with bond trading at its heart? Such a play is currently being performed on the London stage, and the BBC's Robert Champion has been along to see it. All that and more discussed with our guests on either side of the Pacific - Catherine Yeung, Investment Director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, who's in Hong Kong and Alexis Goldstein, activist and freelance business journalist, who's in Washington. (Photo: A Starbucks cafe, as the coffee chain and Fiat were ordered to repay up to 30 million euro in illegal tax breaks after an EU ruling branded a "game changer" in the fight against tax avoidance. Credit: Nick Ansell/PA Wire)