Blowing my own trumpet: myths about corporation tax
Posted by Christie Malry on November 13, 2012 at 6:09 am
I've got a piece on corporation tax myths at CityAM this morning. Here's a little taster:
EXECUTIVES from Google and Starbucks were summoned yesterday to give evidence to the UK’s public accounts committee on their approach to UK taxation. Grilled by Margaret Hodge MP – an outspoken critic of the tax strategies adopted by multinational companies – their treatment reveals two myths about corporation tax that continue to confuse MPs and the general public.
You can read the whole thing here.
Note: the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation report I refer to is available here.
@fcablog good stuff. I’d have also mentioned carry-forward loss relief. I remember when banks returned to profit there was moaning about…
@fcablog … tax being avoided. When I pointed this out few people knew you could set past losses against future profit.
Well said! There is so much ignorant comment going around. The media asks stupid questions simply to stir up the popular passions - they mix big revenue numbers and small tax paid numbers as if the two are related. From what I saw, the MPs yesterday were no better. We live and operate in a big world where "tax planning" is something that companies must do - shareholders have a right to demand that their directors maximise distributable/investable profits (and so minimise tax); accountants and lawyers would be negligent if they failed to advise properly on the law. Then there is the reality that the body of tax law in any country is designed (i.e. put together with some care, attention and purpose) to achieve a range of objectives. The argument that there is a moral obligation to pay tax simply shows a totaly failure to understand the world as it is. If we want to change tax law, then so be it; but we must be very careful of the law of unintended consequences. If every country in the world signed up to a global tax treaty, then we may see progress. But how likely is that? And, without that, there will always be holes in the canopy and through those holes, companies will be able to slip; and will be required to slip, because that's part of the game of capitalism as we currently run it.