Charlie Elphicke – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlie Elphicke on 2014-05-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to tackle aggressive tax avoidance.

Mr David Gauke

Since 2010 the Government has introduced wide ranging reforms to tackle aggressive tax avoidance, including the General Anti-Abuse Rule in 2013 and numerous changes to tax law to close individual loopholes. Budget 2014 announced further measures to target the activities of high-risk promoters and to change the economics of avoidance through requiring taxpayers to pay disputed tax in advance up front.

The Government is also reinvesting over £1 billion in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over this Parliament to increase the level of compliance activity, including tackling aggressive tax avoidance. HMRC brought in £700 million in 2012-13 alone through its work to tackle marketed avoidance schemes. HMRC also litigates cases where necessary and is very successful in doing so, winning around 80% of avoidance cases taxpayers choose to take to court. Many more taxpayers settle before reaching court.

The UK has also been taking a leading role in the work of the G20 and OECD to address base erosion and profit shifting by multinational companies. At the Budget we published a paper which sets out our priorities for the ongoing work with G20 and OECD partners, taking forward the 15 point Action Plan to counter Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). This includes proposals for new international rules to address cross-border business structures or finance transactions and enhanced disclosure rules to help tackle tax avoidance in an international context.