Corporations and taxes

Juan | Mar 01, 2026Feb 26, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on corporate taxation are to:

• talk about corporate taxation and global tax reform;
• practise useful phrases for power dynamics;
• watch a video about tax havens.

Students explore statistics about taxes in the UK, discuss corporate tax regulation and watch a video on Britain’s role in global tax loss. They compare ideas, talk about the ethical impacts of new tax laws and work with headlines. Students learn phrases for evaluating fairness and power dynamics (e.g. fair in principle, pose ethical concerns, have the upper hand) and share their perspectives. They also read news stories and debate possible outcomes of scenarios involving different corporate tax structures and incentives.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on corporate taxation starts with a warm-up. Students complete gaps with numbers in statistics about taxes in the UK. They then discuss questions about corporate tax and government policy. Afterwards, students say what they know about tax havens. Next, they watch the first part of a video about the topic and write down things that are new to them. Moving on, students discuss Britain’s influence on global tax havens. If they don’t know the answers, students brainstorm what they might be. Following that, they watch the second part of the video, compare their answers and write down points including statistics and facts. 

USEFUL PHRASES AND DISCUSSION

In this part of this ESL lesson on corporate taxation, students discuss questions about the ethics and impact of global tax reform. After that, they choose words to complete phrases for evaluating fairness and power dynamics (e.g. a level playing field, lack a sound justification, place a burden on) in headlines. Moving on, students look at the headlines from the previous task again and do tasks where they discuss and predict news stories. Following that, they talk about possible outcomes of different scenarios (e.g. corporations are not offered any tax exemptions, start-ups are given three tax-free years). Students use the target expressions from the lesson. Finally, they read news stories and discuss the regulation and taxation of the gig economy.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson on corporate taxation also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students complete sentences with the target vocabulary from the lesson. They then choose three questions and answer them with their ideas. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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