Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-08.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress the Government has made on the implementation of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting programme; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that programme on the collection of corporation tax in the UK.

Mr David Gauke

The UK has been at the forefront of international efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance through the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which was completed in 2015.

The UK has committed to introducing country-by-country reporting from 1 January 2016 and rules to deal with hybrid mismatch arrangements from 1 January 2017. As set out in Autumn Statement 2014, these measures are estimated to yield around £45 million and £260 million respectively over the next five years. The policy costings were certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The Government has also consulted on the OECD recommendations on the design of rules to prevent groups from gaining excessive tax deductions for interest expense, and how the OECD report on the definition of substantial activities in the context of preferential intellectual property regimes impacts the UK Patent Box.