At Lush we are proud of our products and proud of our ethics. In addition to our existing “We Believe” (Lush Values) statement, we have developed our Ethical Tax Policy to ensure that our staff, our customers and our suppliers are clear about our company structure and our commitment to paying our taxes.

LUSH VALUES STATEMENT:

We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.
We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.
We invent our own products and fragrances, we make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.
We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products, and making our mums proud.
We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
We believe our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right.
We believe that all people should enjoy freedom of movement across the world.
* We also believe words like ‘Fresh’ and ‘Organic’ have an honest meaning beyond marketing.”

LUSH TAX STATEMENT:

We believe not only in paying tax in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations in the territories in which we operate but also in not using complicated tax loopholes to take advantage of legal but essentially questionable tax schemes.
We believe that we should pay the right amount of tax in each country and not overpay taxes in any country.
We believe that we should pay our taxes on time and agree payment plans with local tax authorities in advance where this may not be possible. For example where financial implications may arise as a result of natural disasters, unforeseen emergencies or other occurrences outside of our control.
We believe in minimising the risk that transactions or relationships may have unforeseen adverse tax consequences by using our professional care and judgment to assess situations and projects to make decisions.
We believe in correcting inadvertent errors we identify promptly with full disclosure to the tax authorities.
We believe we should have a clear Transfer Pricing Policy to ensure that the way we charge between our Inventing, Manufacturing and Retail companies is transparent, arm’s length, benchmarked and properly documented, and that it complies with local laws. We aim to refresh our Policy regularly.
We believe we should engage with tax authorities in an open and honest way and discuss any specific uncertainties or issues on time wherever possible.
We believe in operating our business in the simplest possible way with decisions being driven to serve our customers, to encompass our values, to look after our staff and to generate a profit and not by tax planning or the use of tax havens for avoidance purposes.
We believe our group tax rate should be determined by the sum of the parts and not something that is targeted.
We believe local companies should claim the proper statutory reliefs in the countries in which they operate and should never use marketed or abusive tax avoidance schemes.
We believe in giving guidance to our Finance Teams to help them make the right tax decisions (see Criteria below).
We believe the availability of a tax deduction should not be the determining factor when considering charitable giving.

The overall tax policy focuses on 2 key tax areas; transparent disclosure and clear responsibility:-

Company tax policy

Lush's Company Tax Policy