Discuss - Business Company Tax Evasion - Introduction of anti-tax-avoidance law for companies

Should government introduce an anti-avoidance law to stop companies avoiding paying tax in the UK?

Conservative 18 March 2015 - A 'diverted profits tax' will be introduced to stop companies moving their profits to other countries in order to avoid tax. The move, dubbed the "Google Tax" was announced in the pre-election budget by Chancellor George Osborne, said companies which aid tax evasion will also face penalties and criminal prosecutions.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31942639

Green Party This [proposed] Bill would ensure that banks have to provide details on all accounts they maintain for companies operating in the UK so that H M Revenue & Customs and Companies House can chase those companies who do not file the returns they're obliged to make for the missing information - and the tax they owe. This simple law could recover billions of pounds of lost tax for the UK. - Caroline Lucas MP, http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/17-03-2011-tax-evasion-bill-parliament.html

Labour Labour would demand that UK tax havens such as Bermuda would be placed on an 'international blacklist' within six months of winning the 2015 general election, unless the havens - used by many UK registered companies - produced a public register of offshore company owners. Source: Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/06/ed-miliband-tax-avoidance-business-labour

Liberal Democrat The Liberal Democrats would "take tough action against corporate tax evasion and abusive avoidance strategies, including by continuing to invest in HMRC, as we have done in government, to enable them to tackle tax evasion and avoidance, and introducing a general anti-avoidance rule." Companies that fail to prevent tax evasion could face penalties, as part of plans announced by Lib Dem MP Danny Alexander on the 22nd February 2015. Source: Liberal Democrats

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru’s Gwynedd group will call on Gwynedd Council to support direct action from the Tory-Lib Dem Government in Westminster to tackle the scandal of tax dodging by multinational companies operating in Wales and beyond. Source: Plaid Cymru website, http://www.english.gwynedd.plaidcymru.org/news/2014/12/02/gwynedds-plaid-cymru-group-calls-for-action-against-tax-dodging-by-multi-national-companies/

Respect Party "Therefore calls on the water companies to pay their fair share of tax by putting an end to dubious tax avoidance measures; and, failing this, calls on the Government to introduce a windfall tax on all the water companies to recover the tax revenue that has been lost since privatisation." Source: Respect Party http://www.respectparty.org/2014/02/05/water-companies-and-tax/

UKIP "No one voluntarily pays any additional income to the Inland Revenue. Most forms of legal tax avoidance are ok, but clearly some are not." - Nigel Farage, UKIP leader. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/04/legal-tax-avoidance-ok-nigel-farage

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