Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen the corporate tax regime to prevent UK-based multinational companies from practising tax avoidance in developing countries.

The Treasury is committed to helping developing countries collect the tax they are due and building the capacity of developing country tax administrations is key to this. Working with the Department for International Development and HM Revenue and Customs, the Treasury is supporting capacity building projects bilaterally – through DfID country programmes and HMRC’s Capacity Building Unit – and through regional tax organisations and International Organisations.

The UK strongly supports ongoing work in the G20 and OECD to develop global solutions to corporate tax avoidance. As part of this the UK announced it would be the first of 44 countries to formally commit to implementing the new, common country-by-country reporting template for multinationals to report profit and tax information to tax authorities to help risk assessment.