Officials uphold government decision to levy millions in taxes on Coca-Cola agent — here's what you should know
Uganda's Tax Appeals Tribunal has ruled, as of late July, that Coca-Cola's marketing agency in the country, Allied Beverages Limited, must pay the 9.7 billion UGX ($2.7 million U.S.) in value added tax that it seemingly attempted to avoid by classifying its marketing services as exports.
What's happening?
According to regional outlet ChimpReports, the Uganda Revenue Authority assessed the marketing agency for unpaid taxes related to its activities billed to the Coca-Cola Export Corporation — or TCCEC. The URA claimed that since the services were consumed in Uganda, the company should be subject to the standard VAT rate of 18 percent.
While the TCCEC is based in the United States, the Tribunal determined that Allied's promotional activities — such as radio, TV, and billboard ads — benefited Century Bottling Company, a Coca-Cola bottler in Uganda.
"Use and consumption of services is a question of fact … All evidence, when looked at in totality, must point to the place of use or purpose of those services being outside Uganda. That was not the case here," the Tribunal stated, per ChimpReports.
Allied argued that its services were exports and should qualify as zero-rated for VAT since the contracting party is based in the U.S. Ultimately, the Tribunal sided with the government's revenue collection agency, and, in addition to upholding the tax assessment, ordered Allied to pay 80 percent of the legal fees, according to Food Business Middle East & Africa.
Why does this matter?
If Allied were successful in avoiding tax payments in Uganda, it would ultimately impact the country's economy, which still faces challenges such as poverty and inequality.
And though Allied must pay the value added tax, making things right in the eyes of the government, the situation overall may not reflect well on Coca-Cola's image, which has been under scrutiny for various reasons — including its status as one of the world's worst plastic polluters.
The American multinational corporation has taken steps to reduce its plastic use. For instance, a Philadelphia-based bottler switched from plastic rings to paper packaging for Coca-Cola products in 2022.
The company has also mounted numerous recycling efforts to reduce plastic litter.
Meanwhile, it has been linked to cruel practices by one of its sugar suppliers, which was recently ordered to pay a settlement to hundreds of Cambodian families who were displaced when land was cleared to build a plantation years ago.
Should companies be required to help recycle their own products?
Definitely
No way
It depends on the product
They should get tax breaks instead
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Consumers who patronize the brand could see their dollars as helping to perpetuate such practices, with potential humanitarian and environmental impacts.
What can consumers do to hold companies accountable?
Consumers can hold a lot of power, essentially voting with their buying dollars to support the brands and business practices they believe in.
Coca-Cola has made some strides of note in the last several years to become more sustainable and invest in communities around the globe — for instance, by planting trees in Cambodia.
But it's always a good idea to watch out for greenwashing from any company, whether it's a major, globally recognized brand or a smaller seller. Doing research on a company's overall environmental track record and looking for credible third-party certifications can help consumers make more informed decisions and ensure they're giving their hard-earned money to companies that deserve it.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
19 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
China races to build world's largest solar farm to meet emissions targets
TALATAN, China — Chinese government officials last month showed off what they say will be the world's largest solar farm when completed high on a Tibetan plateau. It will cover 610 square kilometers (235 square miles), which is the size of Chicago. China has been installing solar panels far faster than anywhere else in the world, and the investment is starting to pay off. A study released Thursday found that the country's carbon emissions edged down 1% in the first six months of 2025 compared to a year earlier, extending a trend that began in March 2024. The good news is China's carbon emissions may have peaked well ahead of a government target of doing so before 2030. But China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will need to bring them down much more sharply to play its part in slowing global climate change. For China to reach its declared goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, emissions would need to fall 3% on average over the next 35 years, said Lauri Myllyvirta, the Finland-based author of the study and lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. 'China needs to get to that 3% territory as soon as possible,' he said. China's emissions have fallen before during economic slowdowns. What's different this time is electricity demand is growing — up 3.7% in the first half of this year — but the increase in power from solar, wind and nuclear has easily outpaced that, according to Myllyvirta, who analyzes the most recent data in a study published on the U.K.-based Carbon Brief website. 'We're talking really for the first time about a structural declining trend in China's emissions,' he said. China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first six months of the year, more than America's entire capacity of 178 gigawatts as of the end of 2024, the study said. Electricity from solar has overtaken hydropower in China and is poised to surpass wind this year to become the country's largest source of clean energy. Some 51 gigawatts of wind power was added from January to June. Li Shuo, the director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, described the plateauing of China's carbon emissions as a turning point in the effort to combat climate change. 'This is a moment of global significance, offering a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak climate landscape,' he wrote in an email response. It also shows that a country can cut emissions while still growing economically, he said. But Li cautioned that China's heavy reliance on coal remains a serious threat to progress on climate and said the economy needs to shift to less resource-intensive sectors. 'There's still a long road ahead,' he said. A seemingly endless expanse of solar panels stretches toward the horizon on the Tibetan plateau. White two-story buildings rise above them at regular intervals. In an area that is largely desert, the massive solar project has wrought a surprising change on the landscape. The panels act as windbreaks to reduce dust and sand and slow soil evaporation, giving vegetation a foothold. Thousands of sheep, dubbed 'photovoltaic sheep,' graze happily on the scrubby plants. Wang Anwei, the energy administration chief of Hainan Prefecture, called it a 'win-win' situation on multiple levels. 'In terms of production, enterprises generate electricity on the top level, and in terms of ecology, grass grows at the bottom under the solar panels, and villagers can herd sheep in between,' he said. Solar panels have been installed on about two-thirds of the land, with power already flowing from completed phases. When fully complete, the project will have more than 7 million panels and be capable of generating enough power for 5 million households. Like many of China's solar and wind farms, it was built in the relatively sparsely populated west. A major challenge is getting electricity to the population centers and factories in China's east. 'The distribution of green energy resources is perfectly misaligned with the current industrial distribution of our country,' Zhang Jinming, the vice governor of Qinghai province, told journalists on a government-organized tour. Part of the solution is building transmission lines traversing the country. One connects Qinghai to Henan province. Two more are planned, including one to Guangdong province in the southeast, almost at the opposite corner of the country. Making full use of the power is hindered by the relatively inflexible way that China's electricity grid is managed, tailored to the steady output of coal plants rather than more variable and less predictable wind and solar, Myllyvirta said. 'This is an issue that the policymakers have recognized and are trying to manage, but it does require big changes to the way coal-fired power plants operate and big changes to the way the transmission network operates,' he said. 'So it's no small task.' Moritsugu and Guan write for the Associated Press. Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang contributed.
New York Post
19 minutes ago
- New York Post
TikTok staffers worry about teens' mental health in unsealed video: ‘You never want to leave'
TikTok staffers have raised concerns over the wildly popular app's impact on young people's mental health – despite the company's claims that it's safe for teens, according to newly unsealed videos. Current and former TikTok employees shared their unease with the China-owned app's algorithm and its potential to push unhealthy content to kids – including 'soft disordered eating behavior,' according to videos submitted as evidence in a major legal case brought by multiple states. 'Unfortunately, some of the stuff that people find interesting are not always the most healthy,' Nicholas Chng, who worked on risk detection at TikTok before leaving last year, said in a compilation of videos presented as evidence in a North Carolina lawsuit. 4 The internal TikTok meetings were included in a video compilation as evidence in the North Carolina lawsuit. Drobot Dean – 'We do, in a way, encourage some of this content being put up just because of the way the platform is designed. And sometimes I worry about that.' Brett Peters, TikTok's current head of creator advocacy, said the platform pushes 'lofty goals of getting people to be on the app longer.' 'Literally, that's like why we're all here is to help continue to diversify the content ecosystem, to make TikTok a place where you can get so much different types of content that you never want to leave,' Peters said. The videos were obtained during an investigation after North Carolina's then-Attorney General Josh Stein and a group of other state attorneys general sued TikTok last year. In the complaint, they argue TikTok was designed to be 'highly addictive to minors,' and that the company has been deceiving parents and children about safety risks. 4 Two young school children, with one on a smartphone. Christopher Sadowski TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, had been aiming to keep the video sealed, arguing it was necessary for its employees' privacy. But North Carolina Superior Court Judge Adam Conrad on Tuesday ruled that the video should not be sealed from public view, and denied TikTok's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Conrad wrote that 'the employees' association with the case may entail some embarrassment, but that alone does not outweigh the public's right of access.' 4 During internal meetings, current and former TikTok employees shared their unease with the app's algorithm. REUTERS 'These clips clearly show that social media companies know they're designing their apps to hook our children even at the expense of their health. That's why the company fought so hard to keep the video out of the public eye,' North Carolina's current attorney general Jeff Jackson told The Post. A TikTok spokesperson argued that the platform has rolled out several safety features in recent years, like privacy settings for teens, disabling late-night notifications and a guided meditation that interrupts scrolling time. 'Since the launch of the app, we have steadfastly created a robust trust and safety track record, with 70+ features and settings designed specifically to support the safety and well-being of teens and families on TikTok, which the AG has chosen to deliberately ignore,' the spokesperson told The Post in a statement. Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The lawsuit comes as TikTok stares down a potential ban in the US, after earlier this year going dark for just one day as President Trump pushes ByteDance to sell the app to an American entity. The lawsuit is seeking financial penalties and a court order banning TikTok from 'engaging in the unfair or deceptive acts and practices' described in the complaint. The complaint alleges that TikTok fails 'to tell young users and parents what their executives and employees know about the harms caused by increased screen time … that it 'interferes with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones.'' 4 A TikTok spokesperson argued that the platform has rolled out several safety features in recent years. REUTERS In the video, Alexandra Evans, who led TikTok's safety public policy team in Europe before leaving in 2022, said that 'the reason why kids watch TikTok is that the (algorithm) is really good.' 'It's not because we've tried to do anything horrible, but I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say opportunities, I literally mean sleep and eating and moving around the room and looking at somebody in the eyes.' Ashlen Sepulveda, who worked in trust and safety before leaving TikTok in 2021, said it 'keeps me up at night' to know 'that our algorithm pushes content to users based off of what it thinks they're interested in.' 'The more that a user looks up things about, like fitness or like diet, it turns into losing weight, and then, soon enough, the entire feed of this user is like soft disordered eating behavior that is being discussed by their peers with no opportunity to remove themselves from that,' she said. Peters, the app's creator advocacy lead, added: 'We have these expectations and goals, and they're not necessarily congruent with good mental health.' Meanwhile, the White House launched an official account on TikTok this week.
The Hill
19 minutes ago
- The Hill
China's growing influence in US sports demands a response
In May, the U.S. House passed the 'DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.' The bill aims to reduce Chinese influence at U.S. universities by limiting funding to institutions with ties to Chinese government-backed entities. This includes the Confucius Institutes, which are fully funded by the Chinese government to manipulate public opinion in the U.S. Although Congress is focused on Chinese influence on U.S. college campuses, the Chinese government has deftly transitioned to another American institution to influence U.S. public opinion — namely, sports entertainment. The term 'sportswashing' entered our vocabulary around a decade ago. It is used to describe a country that cynically uses sports entertainment to improve its global reputation and deflect criticism of its human rights record. The creation of LIV Golf by Saudi Arabia is a perfect example. LIV Golf is financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which has close ties to the Saudi government. Human rights organizations argue that Saudi Arabia's interest in elevating LIV Golf around the world is to distract critics and foreign governments from the country's abysmal human rights record. That may be the most-cited and visible example of sportswashing, but China that may be the most effective at sportswashing in the U.S. China's primary sportswashing effort in the U.S. is focused on the National Basketball Association. China's growing financial relationship with the NBA has caught the attention of U.S. lawmakers and critics of China's human rights record. China accounts for a significant portion of the league's global income. The NBA's total revenue in 2025 is around $12 billion, with China contributing over $1 billion annually to the league. A public conversation about China's growing financial relationship with the NBA began in 2019, when then-Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey expressed support for Hong Kong protesters fighting to preserve their democracy. His remarks led to a temporary ban of NBA broadcasts on Chinese state television, a halt in merchandise sales for the Houston Rockets, and Chinese corporate sponsors withdrawing support for the league. Morey's comments resulted in significant financial losses for the NBA. This prompted NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to release a statement criticizing Morey's comments by saying that he had 'deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China,' without ever mentioning the democracy protests and the crushing of civil rights taking place in Hong Kong at the time. The relationship between the NBA and China has only grown closer over the last decade. The NBA has long-standing partnerships with Chinese media outlets, including state-run China Central Television. The NBA has also signed a lucrative deal with digital media giant Tencent, making the company the NBA's exclusive digital partner in China. The league has aggressively pursued merchandise deals with Chinese shoe and apparel companies like Anta, Li-Ning, and Peak. What most concerns critics of China's sportswashing efforts in The U.S. is that NBA business operations in China are conducted through NBA China, a separate China-based entity valued at $5 billion. NBA owners also have substantial financial ties to China that extend beyond the league. Many owners are heavily invested in China through their other business ventures, including private equity and venture capital firms. This includes Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, the co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its second-largest shareholder. There is real concern and unease among some NBA owners, league officials, and U.S. lawmakers about the NBA's growing financial dependency on China, and what it could mean for the league's future. The NBA, unlike the NFL and Major League Baseball, increasingly relies on revenue generated from a global audience, as domestic TV ratings continue to fall. The 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers averaged only 10.3 million viewers, making it one of the lowest-rated NBA Finals series ever. The NBA's growing partnership with China raises important questions. Can a league that has branded itself a progressive advocate for human rights at home continue to ignore China's human rights abuses, and even a potential military conflict with the United States over Taiwan, for purely financial reasons? Today, the Chinese government continues to wage a violent campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has also ended Hong Kong's autonomy and fight for democracy and continues its brutal crackdown in Tibet. Under President Xi Jinping, China has imposed new national security laws, curbing human rights, restricting freedom of the press and speech, and jailing independent journalists and pro-democracy activists, while militarily threatening its neighbors — many of which are U.S. allies. Although lower domestic television ratings and revenue are not good for the NBA, the league's growing dependency on Chinese money and influence could pose a far greater problem in the future. The Chinese government chose the NBA to test its sportswashing efforts abroad for a reason. The NBA's public support of progressive causes, including Black Lives Matter, provide the Chinese government with an opportunity to manipulate domestic U.S. public opinion against U.S. lawmakers, public figures, and human rights organizations exposing China's human rights abuses. China not only views the NBA and its players as business partners, but also as willing critics of U.S. government policies at home and abroad. As the U.S. government and international human rights organizations continue to highlight the deteriorating human rights conditions in China, will the Trump Administration and the U.S. Congress seek to end China's sportswashing efforts in The United States, as they have attempted to do on U.S. college campuses? Will the NBA continue to permit China to use their growing financial influence over the league to distract American public opinion from China's growing human rights abuses? We don't know. What we do know is that China's attempt to influence U.S. public opinion through sports entertainment will continue unless U.S. lawmakers put an end to it.
