Category: Taxing multinational companies

How UK’s Companies House could be making life harder for tax inspectors in developing countries

I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days last week in discussion with the head of transfer pricing from a small developing country. One of the obstacles that I hadn’t previously understood was that it is sometimes very hard for tax authorities to prove in court that an offshore company is related to… Continue reading How UK’s Companies House could be making life harder for tax inspectors in developing countries

Why the Public Accounts Committee should call the OECD to give evidence

I couldn’t watch yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing. From what I could gather over Twitter it was a lot of fun, but didn’t shed any light on anything significant…and what we can learn from the evidence will I’m sure be covered on blogs elsewhere. What I did hear, though, was a fascinating ten minute… Continue reading Why the Public Accounts Committee should call the OECD to give evidence

Questions for the Public Accounts Committee today

This afternoon, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be discussing “Taxation of Multinational Corporations” with Matt Brittin, Chief Executive Officer of Google UK, Troy Alstead, Starbucks Global Chief Financial Officer and Andrew Cecil, Director of Public Policy at Amazon. The Guardian reports that Starbucks may already have sustained lasting damage to its brand image from… Continue reading Questions for the Public Accounts Committee today

The death of corporation tax?

With all the recent scandals involving internet companies, it seems quite reasonable to assert that corporation tax as we know it is in a crisis, and it’s time for fundamental reform of the way we tax multinational companies. The very low overall effective tax rates of the internet giants do suggest that today’s biggest companies… Continue reading The death of corporation tax?