2. Tax avoidance | The UK’s experience with multinationals
• Complexity of existing laws give scope for exploiting loopholes
• International tax rules not kept pace with global changes and online
• Public mood on tax avoidance has changed
• Increased demand for transparent handling of corporate tax settlements
• Multinationals must be more transparent about where they make their
profits and pay tax.
3. Public Accounts Committee inquiry: HMRC Accounts 2011-12
Two of the Committee’s recommendations addressed multinational tax
collection.
Nov
2012
May
2013
Whistleblowers submit evidence showing clear discrepancies with
Google’s claims.
Public Accounts Committee inquiry: Tax Avoidance - Google
Committee made 4 recommendations to update tax laws and combat tax
avoidance.
Jan
2016
Google announces £130 million settlement
Public Accounts Committee inquiry: Corporate tax settlements
Committee made 5 recommendations to press for changes in international
tax rules to prevent aggressive avoidance by multinational companies.
PAC’s recent work | Combating multinational tax avoidance
4. PAC’s current work | Gaining support for a European wide framework
• It is clear that multinationals use artificial tax structures to legally avoid paying
taxes in the countries they operate in.
• Finance Act 2015: public country-by-country reporting, OECD template.
• March 2016: PAC backs a financial transparency bill calling for publication of the
details that multinationals report to tax authorities in each tax jurisdiction:
• amount of revenue
• profit before income tax
• income tax paid and accrued
I am asking for your support for a Europe-wide parliamentary commitment to
country-by-country transparent reporting within the framework we have
proposed.
• their total employment
• capital and retained earnings
• tangible assets
We need to get our citizens and parliaments to actively work together to
press governments to listen.