UK's tax authorities called on to "step up its game"

Ahead of the imminent publication of the report on corporate tax avoidance by the UK Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, Committee Chair Margaret Hodge has called on Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs to strengthen its stance towards companies using tax havens to shift profits offshore.  In an interview given to International Tax Review, Hodge - a Minister in the previous government - says that HMRC should

"step up its game" and "aggressively deal with those companies that are deliberately exporting profits from the UK to low-tax jurisdictions."

Elsewhere in the same interview, Hodge backs the case for Country-by-Country Reporting and aligns with TJN in supporting the case for taxing companies on a unitary basis with profits being apportioned only to those places where genuine economic activity takes place.  She does, however, caution that negotiations on these measures might be protracted, something we'd agree on, though we do see civil society taking an active role in keeping both projects moving down the street.

Read ITR's interview here, and look out for the PAC report early next week.  We expect fireworks!