{"id":18806,"date":"2013-01-05T14:59:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T14:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=18806"},"modified":"2013-01-05T14:59:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T14:59:25","slug":"what-cameron-said-on-tax-avoidance-for-the-record-and-so-we-can-hold-him-to-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/01\/05\/what-cameron-said-on-tax-avoidance-for-the-record-and-so-we-can-hold-him-to-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What Cameron said on tax avoidance, for the record, and so we can hold him to it"},"content":{"rendered":"

What David Cameron had to say on tax avoidance yesterday was important<\/a>. That's not because I believe he means it. And it's not because I think he\u00a0understands\u00a0what he said, or what he can do about it. No, it's\u00a0important\u00a0because\u00a0what he said sets a benchmark for appraisal of what he and his\u00a0government\u00a0actually do when it cokmes to tackling tax avoidance after he has come to realise the implications of his message.<\/p>\n

Since there seems to be common ground between the papers on what was said I think it's worth putting on record here. The transcript of his response to a question on\u00a0Starbucks and Amazon was (this being based on the Mirror's version<\/a>, but the Telegraph's<\/a> is similar):<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need a debate in this country, not only what is against the law - that\u2019s tax evasion, that is against the law, that\u2019s illegal and if you do that the Inland Revenue will come down on you like a ton of bricks - but what is unacceptable in terms of really aggressive tax avoidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause some people say to me, \u2018Well, it\u2019s all within the law; you\u2019re obeying the law, it\u2019s okay\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Well, actually there are lots of things that are within the law that we don\u2019t do because actually we have some moral scruples about them and I think we need this debate about tax too.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m not asking people to pay massive rates of tax.<\/p>\n

\"We\u2019ve got a low top rate of income tax now; we\u2019ve got a low rate of corporation tax now; we are a fair tax country.<\/p>\n

\"But I think it\u2019s fair then to say to business, you know, we\u2019re playing fair by you; you\u2019ve got to play fair by us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said he intended to put the issue at the heart of the agenda when the heads of G8 group of leading nations meet in the UK this summer<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simply not fair and not right what some of them are doing by saying: \u2018I\u2019ve got lots of sales here in the UK but I\u2019m going to pay a sort of royalty fee to another company that I own in another country that has some special tax dispensation.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not right, and so we are looking at it.<\/p>\n

\"I\u2019m chairing the G8 this year so I\u2019m going to be getting the Americans and the French and the Germans and the Italians and the Japanese all to look at this together at how can we try and stop unfair tax farming practices.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I'm delighted he's said this, but as I'll note in a following blog, I have almost no doubt at all that he has no clue what saying so means.<\/p>\n

Which is going to make 2013 interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What David Cameron had to say on tax avoidance yesterday was important. That’s not because I believe he means it. And it’s not because I
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