Paradise Papers Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Paradise Papers

Steve McCabe Excerpts
Monday 6th November 2017

(6 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is but one further example of making companies criminally responsible where their employees try to facilitate tax avoidance. That is the right way to go and is just another measure the Government have brought in.

Steve McCabe Portrait Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
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Does the Minister accept that the scale of aggressive avoidance exposed by these revelations shows that the general anti-abuse rule introduced in 2013 is not working and that what we need is general anti-avoidance legislation so that there is no room for doubt and no room for manoeuvre?

Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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The hon. Gentleman talks about the amount revealed by these disclosures, and I assume he is centring his remarks on the half-hour television programme last night. The reality is that we do not yet know exactly the extent of what will be revealed, which is why HMRC has asked those with the data to make it available—so that we can use it to get on with the job of cracking down on those who might not have behaved as they should.