I gave a presentation at the Social Market Foundation this morning.
Xxxxxx Xxxxx was there. She is the Director of xxxxxxxxxxx at HM Revenue & Customs.
In response to discussion on country-by-country reporting she said the was no evidence it would help the UK in targeting transfer pricing abuse and so would not aid revenue.
Oddly, in January 2010, when she reported to Labour's Stephen Timms MP, who was an enthusiast for country-by-country reporting, she told the OECD that country-by-country reporting would help the UK and it would undoubtedly help revenue raising by considerably improving risk assessment and the targeting of resources on transfer pricing issues.
So much for an impartial civil service.
So much for an objective HMRC.
NB: This blog has been amended at the request of HMRC, not that they had the courage to ask me to do so themselves. Apparently they don't like me reporting what they say - although they're ready at any moment to brief against me.
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I suppose that strictly speaking she was correct that there was no evidence – given that it hasn’t been tried yet. Its a bit like saying that there was no evidence that the abolition of slavery would improve tle lot of the slaves. I’m afraid that civil servants are past masters in the art in making meaningless statements which do not upset the politicians in charge.
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