Category - tax justice

The Patent Box is supposed to be a tax technicality: from April of this year (2013), any company that makes profits out of a patent can pay a lower tax rate on that bit of their profits. It is meant to encourage investment and economic growth, and to prevent the movement of intellectual property offshore. But Wendy Bradley discovers that the devil is in the detail of what is actually a multi-milion pound giveaway to big companies. The government needs seriously to look at benefits, procedure and priorities in adjusting the tax system.

The recent Google, Amazon and Starbucks scandals in Britain have shown that loopholes for multinationals to avoid tax need to be closed, says Christian Aid.

The Government has missed an opportunity to use tax reform to help reduce developing countries’ reliance on aid, says Christian Aid in response to the budget.

Millions of Britons are using consumer power to boycott companies seen to be avoiding their fair share of UK tax, new research reveals.