Well done, The Guardian

The Guardian newspaper patted itself on the back yesterday for its expensive campaigning efforts on corporate tax. They are quite right to congratulate themselves. The newspaper

"spent three months investigating many more avoidance schemes across the whole of British corporate life. The resultant "tax gap" series cost more than £90,000 in specialist legal advice and professional consultancy."

It hasn't been easy:

"One of its first exposures, of offshore tax avoidance schemes by the supermarket giant Tesco, led to bruising litigation."

Read more here. And they noted:

"A central feature was Richard Brooks's daily blog. This, along with a dedicated confidential email, enabled readers to post their own comments, and those with specialist knowledge to supply their own tip-offs. The consequences were dramatic. With new information that came in, the Guardian was able to spotlight hitherto unknown avoidance schemes by the big banks, particularly those in the process of being helped by state funds."

Follow issues in the Guardian's dedicated Tax Avoidance section. The issues are so important that we wish other well-resourced publications around the world would put the same effort into this. Bit by bit, we see momentum building. We have a very long way still to go.