• The post you are reporting:
   
  Tax avoidance is Public Enemy No 1
  
  'Big four' accountants 'use knowledge of Treasury to help rich avoid tax'
  
  Experts offering advice on legislation they helped to create is 'ridiculous conflict of interest',
  
  Margaret Hodge MP has called on the**************** Treasury to stop accepting staff from the
  
  'big four' accountancy firms when drawing up new laws**************.
  
  
  The so-called "big four" accountancy firms are using knowledge gained from staff seconded
  
  to the Treasury to help wealthy clients avoid paying UK taxes, a report by the influential
  
  Commons public accounts committee says.
  
  Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have provided the government
  
  with expert accountants to draw up tax laws. But the firms went on to advise multinationals
  
  and individuals on how to exploit loopholes around legislation they had helped to write, the
  
  public accounts committee (PAC) found.
  
  Margaret Hodge, the PAC's chair, said the actions of the accountancy firms were tantamount
  
  to a scam and represented a "ridiculous conflict of interest" which must be stopped.
  
  "The large accountancy firms are in a powerful position in the tax world and have an
  
  unhealthily cosy relationship with government," she said, calling for the Treasury to stop
  
  accepting their staff to draw up new tax laws......................

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