The government makes its own decisions on tax policy and does not take lectures from big business, the CBI’s Director General has told a BBC Panorama programme investigating ‘massive tax savings’ made by multinationals through transactions with Luxembourg subsidiaries.
A new initiative to provide international auditing expertise and advice to help developing countries ‘better address tax base erosion, including tax evasion and avoidance’ has been launched by the OECD’s Informal Task Force on Tax and Development.
‘India will delay the introduction of wide-ranging proposed tax avoidance laws by one year, in a move designed to placate international investors worried over increasingly erratic legal changes.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has warned that ‘massive’ offshore tax evasion and avoidance cause ‘serious harm to the public interest’ in Europe and elsewhere, and particularly in developing countries.
Country by country reporting of profits and taxes paid is ‘essential’ for detecting corporate tax avoidance, according to MEPs who adopted by 538 votes to 73 a resolution on ‘concrete ways to combat tax fraud and tax evasion’. There were 32 abstentions.
A common consolidated corporate tax base should be compulsory for all companies except SMEs after a transitional period, according to a resolution of the European Parliament approved last month by 452 votes to 172, with 36 abstentions.
A change to the UK-Swiss tax agreement signed last October provides for an increase in the maximum rate of the one-off payment from 34% to 41%.
Tax Justice Network says the current regime for taxing multinationals is ‘not fit for purpose’
Chris Morgan provides your update on developments in international tax, including recent examples of overseas tax authorities clamping down on tax avoidance.
A tax information exchange agreement between the UK and Liberia, signed in London in November 2010, entered into force on 30 March 2012.