Tax Justice petition by Caroline Lucas

[biffvernon]

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.g ... ions/18996

Created by:
Caroline Lucas

TAX JUSTICE

Responsible department: Her Majesty's Treasury

We applaud campaigns by trade unions, church groups, and civil society demanding tax justice and join them in calling on the Government to take action to identify those avoiding and evading tax. Firstly, the Chancellor should force all multinational companies filing accounts in the UK to reveal their use of tax havens and publish what profits they earn and what tax they pay in each country in which they operate, without exception. Secondly, banks should be required by law to give details of all accounts they maintain for companies operating in the UK so HMRC and Companies House can chase any companies who pretend to be dormant to evade tax. These two simple changes could help recover billions of pounds of lost tax for the UK by revealing those hiding their income from view.

[cubes]

Good intentions yet little of it is actually practical unfortunately. HMRC certainly doesn't have the manpower to deal with large companies already and certainly won't if flooded by this information.

The one big change I'd make is to disallow loan/overdraft/etc interest payments for tax purposes for any company, it might encourage companies to think more before borrowing money and make them a little more robust in conditions such as the one we're in now.

[kenneal - lagger]

Done and thanks, Biff.