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Chancellor boosts funds for tax avoidance fight

06.12.12 | Bookseller staff

The budget for HM Revenue & Customs will be ring-fenced for two years, with an extra £77m to fight tax avoidance, chancellor George Osborne pledged in the autumn statement yesterday (5th December).

The step follows the public debate over multinationals such as Amazon and Google paying an "appropriate" amount of tax in the UK.

The chancellor also committed the UK to leading the effort worldwide to stop international companies avoiding paying tax in countries in which they are doing business. A total of 2,500 tax inspectors will be employed next year specifically to combat tax avoidance and evasion.

Osborne said: "We will put more resources into ensuring multi-national companies pay their proper share of taxes. With Germany and now France, we have asked the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to take this work forward and we will make it an important priority of our G8 Presidency next year."

Amazon was among the companies named as "exploiting" the current UK tax legislation to avoid paying an appropriate amount of tax in the country by the Public Accounts Committee earlier this week.

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