Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to increase the resources allocated to HM Revenue and Customs to reduce tax avoidance by large multinational corporations.

This government has taken a wide range of action to tackle corporate tax avoidance over this parliament, sending out a clear message that large businesses need to pay their fair share. We have closed down numerous loopholes and have led efforts at the G20 and OECD to reform the international rules that some multinationals exploit to avoid tax. Work is continuing at pace with our international partners to finalise recommendations and to deliver those reforms.

Alongside this we have invested heavily in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax compliance activities, including a £30 million funding provided at Autumn Statement 2012 to increase work on identifying and challenging multinationals’ transfer pricing arrangements and further strengthening risk assessment capability across the large business sector. As a result of close monitoring and compliance work HMRC recovered around £31 billion in tax revenues from large UK businesses between April 2010 and March 2014. In addition, this year HMRC launched a new dedicated Large Business directorate to deal closely with the tax affairs of the 2,100 largest businesses in the UK.