In compliance with its duty under paragraph 19(2) to Schedule 19 of the Finance Act 2016, McCormick EMEA Holdings Limited (the "Company") is publishing its tax strategy for the year ended 30 November 2023. The Company is the head company of a sub-group of companies, and this strategy applies to all the UK companies within the sub-group.

General Overview

The Company is part of the group of companies headed by McCormick & Company, Inc., a US corporation publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (together, the "McCormick Group"). 

The McCormick Group is committed to its corporate and social responsibilities. Our mission, our values, our business ethics policy and our culture are built on a foundation of respect and of being a good “corporate citizen.”

The UK Group's approach to tax

• We comply with all tax legislation requirements.
• We meet all our tax compliance obligations, accurately and on a timely basis.
• We obtain and utilise tax relief and incentives where available that are consistent with the policy objectives of the relief or incentive.
• On major transactions, we ensure that we use a structure that is fully supportable under applicable UK laws and beyond.
• We are transparent with HMRC to ensure we have certainty in our tax positions and reporting.
• We provide clarity and insight into the tax risks, processes, compliance and reporting obligations in our internal governance structure and to our board of directors.
• McCormick’s brands are key to its success and we ensure that its reputation is not impacted by any aggressive tax positions.
  

Risk management and governance arrangements
As part of a large multinational group, the UK Group can be exposed to a variety of tax risks. These include, amongst others, legislative and regulatory changes, uncertainty in the interpretation of tax law, operational and compliance risks, and the impact of these risks on the reputation of our brands.  We minimise these risks, by ensuring we have the appropriate level of resources, including IT systems, and training for employees so that the work can be carried out in full compliance with the applicable laws.
We seek external tax advice when there is a need for specialist guidance and support.  For example, we seek advice in relation to material or non-routine transactions or areas of uncertainty surrounding the interpretation of tax law.

Tax planning

Our tax department supports the commercial needs of the business. The department engages with the relevant business functions to assess the tax treatment of transactions or new business strategy.  Where more than two legal options are available and fully align with the commercial reality of the transaction, the most tax efficient method may be pursued. This may mean that, amongst other things, certain tax reliefs or exemptions are claimed. McCormick’s tax departments vision and mission statement is that McCormick always makes business or commercial and financial decisions on a tax sensitive/optimization basis. 

Attitude towards risk

The Company adopts a conservative approach to tax risk management, driven by our policy to be a good "corporate citizen". We are committed to complying with the spirit and letter of UK tax laws and regulations and obtaining certainty with respect to any transactions our business undertakes. From time to time, advice from professional advisors is sought in specialist areas of tax to obtain comfort with respect to more complex transactions.

Relationship with HM Revenue & Customs

As a consequence of the foregoing, we have low risk status with HMRC (as determined by HMRC's Business Risk Review process).  To maintain our low risk status with HMRC, we strive to be fully transparent and cooperative with our Customer Compliance Manager. We discuss, where possible, any significant transactions on a timely basis. We seek to be open and collaborative with HMRC, providing them as required, relevant information and acting in a courteous and timely manner.