WPP may quit UK to cut its tax

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and chief executive of advertising giant WPP, is considering shifting the company offshore to escape Britain's increasingly complex corporate tax structure.

WPP has an annual tax bill of more than £200 million, which could be reduced by tens of millions of pounds if it relocated its tax domicile to Ireland.

"We are looking at it," Sorrell told the Daily Mail. "It's not about non-doms and capital gains tax. It's about some arcane proposals regarding the tax deductions for foreign controlled corporations."

Pharmaceuticals giant Shire and United Business Media are moving their tax domicile to Ireland, largely because most of their earnings now come from overseas.

If WPP were to move, it would be a massive blow to Chancellor Alistair Darling in lost tax revenues and prestige.

WPP pays tax in more than 100 countries but is regularly taxed again on its profits when they come back to the UK.