Finance (No. 2) Bill

Debate between Steve McCabe and Fiona O'Donnell

Wednesday 17th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Fiona O’Donnell]

I am glad that the Minister shakes her head and I give her credit for much of the good work that she has done in office. However, it is time for action. I repeatedly asked the Secretary of State, when she appeared before the Select Committee, whether she would act and whether she was pressing the Treasury for more transparency. She said that it really was not a matter for her; it was a matter for the Treasury—but it absolutely is for the Department for International Development and for the Secretary of State and her Ministers to address this issue. The people in those developing countries have as much right as people in this country to be outraged, but unless they have access to the information about whether tax has been paid, they will not be able to feel that sense of outrage. I hope that we will see some movement on that issue.

If we are ever to see a situation in which aid does not have to be stuck at 0.7%, as I am sure developing countries and many of us want, it will be by ensuring that tax is paid. We have had estimates from the OECD, as my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North said in her opening remarks, that developing countries lose three times as much money as they receive in aid. We have a chance now to do something not just for developing countries, but for our own country, by easing that burden.

I give credit to the right hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce), the Chair of the International Development Committee for the work he has done and I thank recently joined members of the Committee for their support. The Chairman does not put his party or the coalition first: he genuinely works in the interests of developing countries and the UK in ensuring that tax is spent well. I just wish that we could see Committees in the Scottish Parliament following that good example.

I believe that I may have the honour of serving on the Bill Committee, and I hope that we will not have the same experience as I have had all too often in Committee, with the Government continually refusing to accept amendments, followed by a climbdown. The amendments make genuinely helpful suggestions without asking the Government to alter direction. They would strengthen the measures on which we agree about the direction of travel to ensure that we carefully assess the impact of the policies and that they achieve what we want them to achieve. People have marched in support of the Robin Hood tax and want to see a fairer, more progressive form of capitalism in this country, so the Minister needs to step up to the mark—as well as to the Dispatch Box—and accept the amendments.

[Steve McCabe]

The Government repeatedly promise to crack down on tax avoidance. Of course, I welcome any efforts in that direction, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) pointed out, the prospect of between £60 million and £85 million projected extra revenue against a tax gap of £32.2 billion is hardly the stuff of ground-breaking flagship policies. I am curious to know just who will be pursued under the Government’s plans. As we heard, GAAR will be targeted at abusive avoidance that has abnormal features, and on those involved in highly contrived tax avoidance. Does that mean that normal, low-key, run-of-the-mill, common or garden tax avoidance is going to carry on as normal, with very little activity directed at it at all? Like others, it is not clear to me that GAAR is focused on the tax avoidance of the multinational corporations we have heard so much about lately.

I am pleased that the Government are planning to put tax avoidance on the agenda at the G8 summit, but it would be better if we had a clear indication tonight on what they intend to achieve. For example, I want to know whether the Prime Minister plans to follow up Chancellor Merkel’s concerns about the lack of monitoring of British sovereign territories, which are increasingly used as tax havens. I would love to know how a place such as Jersey became the world’s largest exporter of bananas. Will the G8 be considering guideline prices to help countries in the developing world? Will there be any discussion on an international tax inspector operation to help the countries that are being sucked dry by international lawyers, accountants and financiers?

At the very least, the Government could announce that they are ending tax secrecy by accepting amendment 3 and insisting that multinational groups publish a simple, single figure for the amount of corporation tax they pay in this country, instead of the current arrangements where they parcel the tax paid in a variety of ways that permits avoidance. The Government might also say that they intend to take some action against law firms in this country who all too readily set up shell companies, no questions asked, in the full knowledge that they are aiding and abetting tax avoidance and other corrupt practices.

The Prime Minster might also follow up on his promise that members of his Government publish details of their own tax affairs. Why not lead by example? This is not France. We have nothing to fear here—I think—unlike in France, where the man charged with fighting tax evasion turns out to be a tax fraud himself. At least the French President is now going to force his Ministers to publish details of their tax affairs. Why does our Prime Minister not do the same? He said that he would.

I welcome measures to tighten the rules on companies that arrange loans for their directors or shareholders, in place of taxable salaries or dividends. That particular activity sounds remarkably close to the tax arrangements that brought down Glasgow Rangers football club, and may be widespread in football. I therefore welcome what the Minister is doing on that.

Finally, why has the Chancellor backtracked on retrospective legislation restricting the right of companies to bid for Government work where they have lost disputes with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs over tax avoidance? The Government are not frightened of retrospective legislation, as we saw in the case of the jobseeker’s allowance claimants who won their appeal over dodgy back-to-work schemes. Why is it okay to protect tax avoiders, but punish the unemployed?