#34
"The present government has taken measure against avoidance ..."
Eye read...
"[B] Claims that something is at last being done about corporate tax avoidance are coming thick and fast... But what is happening, alas, is neutered by measures the coalition has taken to make tax dodging
easier. [/B]
When George Osborne tried to take the lead in the G20's efforts against corporate tax avoidance, telling the Observer that some multinationals "pay as little as 5% in corporate taxes while smaller businesses are paying up to 30%", he deftly avoided mentioning the relaxations he has made over the past two years to laws governing offshore tax schemes by multinationals which, for example, give tax haven based financing schemes like Vodafone's a 5% tax rate.
When he then emoted against corporate tax avoidance hitting the world's poor, he ignored the fact that one of these changes' other beggar-my-neighbour effects is that British multinationals can now send profits out of developing countries into tax havens with impunity.
Osborne's chief secretary Danny Alexander's announcement that companies that have unsuccessfully tried to avoid tax will be barred from Government contracts is pretty hopeless too. The narrow definition of tax avoidance used does not cover any of the schemes - those of Vodafone, Starbucks, Amazon, Accenture et al - that sparked public outrage and prompted the move in the first place. Alexander still had the nerve to call his latest measure a "significant tool" in the battle against tax avoidance. As tools go, it's as useful as a glass hammer."
Issue 1334...
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/