division_name: Tax Avoidance and Evasion
motion: <p class="indent" pid="d185.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes that the tax gap, the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid to HMRC and what is actually paid, has been estimated at between a minimum of &#163;35 billion and &#163;90 billion; believes that successive Conservative governments have failed to address tax avoidance and evasion while making savage cuts to public services and undermining the social security net; further notes that the Tax Justice Network has described the UK as backsliding on financial transparency; is concerned by reports of the Conservative Party&#8217;s links with individuals and companies that have engaged in tax avoidance; and calls for the proper funding of public services after a decade of austerity and for robust action to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d187.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;many sources of uncertainty and potential error&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d187.3/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the tax services industry, propagated by the Big Four&#8212;&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d187.3/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;is essentially the apex of this pyramid of factors that helps build, manage and maintain&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d187.3/23" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the last four years have seen a multiple pile-up of mis-selling scandals and incidents of regulatory failure. It has witnessed the repeated and wanton abdication of responsibility by leading market participants...Worst of all, it has demonstrated a breathtaking betrayal of the trust...rightly owed by so-called financial services professionals to their investors and employees.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d197.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The UK would be well advised to take note that EU finance ministers put a British overseas territory on the blacklist of tax havens.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d197.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">This sends a clear signal that the idea of turning the UK into a tax haven will not be acceptable to the EU.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d207.2/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If I were compelled to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I would make straight for West Bromwich.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d211.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The people of the black country and Stourbridge hold on to certain basic truths that are not just old-fashioned notions that can simply be cast aside&#8230;that one should never borrow what one cannot pay back, that we should not foster a culture in which people are led to expect something for nothing&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-06-07">7 June</phrase> 2010; Vol. 511, c. 61.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d223.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;an ideal solution for those who prefer to operate&#8230;in the EU&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d223.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;and to have a totally tax-free facility&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d223.0/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Scotland&#8217;s global reputation in the funds and financial services sector, as a respected and safe jurisdiction in which to undertake business, can be exploited by the Scottish LP in an effort to add credence to an otherwise fraudulent scheme.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d225.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d228.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;no policy direction, no messaging, no direction, no co-ordination, no nothing&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d228.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;likely overstated (possibly by a wide margin).&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d234.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Britain still scored badly despite making significant strides ahead of its global peers on fostering greater&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d234.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;transparency.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d234.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">This, he said, was because the report calculates its final secrecy score based on the volume of financial activity conducted by non-residents.&#8221;</p>