Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2015-11-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to prevent British multinational companies avoiding tax in developing countries.

Mr David Gauke

The Government takes tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning extremely seriously, and has taken action both domestically and through working with other countries to prevent this.

The UK has led global efforts to tackle aggressive tax planning by multinational companies through the OECD-G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The project represents an unprecedented international effort that involved over 60 countries, including developing countries, working together to better align the taxation of profits with economic activity and value creation.

The Government is also committed to supporting developing countries to collect the tax they are due. Through the G20 Development Working Group, and with the supporting of international organisations, it is working to produce practical toolkits that will assist developing countries in implementing the BEPS recommendations.

In addition, the UK contributes considerable human and financial resources to help developing countries build robust tax administrations. Earlier this year, the Government committed to doubling our funding for tax projects in developing countries.