division_name: Tax Avoidance and Multinational Companies
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b903.329/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes the agreement reached between HM Revenue and Customs and Google to pay &#163;130 million in respect of taxes due over the period 2005 to 2015; and calls on the Government to publish the full details so that the British public can judge whether this is, as stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a major success; and further calls for a swift international agreement to implement country-by-country reporting of company accounts.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.345/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t feel fair. And in our hearts, I think we all know it isn&#8217;t fair.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.369/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;notes that the Government has taken action to promote international cooperation in relation to clamping down on tax avoidance by multinational companies, challenging the international tax rules which have not been updated since they were first developed in the 1920s, that multilateral cooperation at an international level has included the UK playing a leading role in the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project to review all international tax rules and increase tax transparency, and as part of that, the UK was the first country to commit to implementing the OECD country-by-country reporting model within domestic legislation, that the Government recognises the case for publishing country-by-country reports on a multilateral basis, that the Government has introduced more than 40 changes to tax law, that the various measures taken by the Government have included the introduction of a diverted profits tax aimed at targeting companies who use contrived arrangements to divert profits from the UK, stopping the use of offshore employment intermediaries to avoid employer National Insurance contributions, stopping companies from obtaining a tax advantage by entering into contrived arrangements to turn old tax losses or restricted use into more versatile in-year deductions, and requiring taxpayers who are using avoidance schemes that have been defeated through the courts to pay the tax in dispute with HM Revenue and Customs upfront, and that the Government is committed to going further, enabling HM Revenue and Customs to recover an additional &#163;7.2 billion over the Parliament.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.369/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The current tax rules are not designed to tax the profits from UK sales. They&#8217;re certainly not designed to tax either revenue or sales generated in the UK. They are instead designed to tax that part of a firm&#8217;s profit that arises from value created in the UK. That is the principle underlying all corporate tax regimes across the OECD.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.385/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;were reasonable and the overall outcome for the Exchequer was good.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.397/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;review the implementation of the new international country-by-country tax reporting rules and consider the case for making this information publicly available on a multilateral basis.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.398/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It is galling that my business pays its taxes on time and in full, but huge corporations like Google do not and seem to be able to avoid doing so for years&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.398/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It seems there are stringent rules for small domestic businesses but another much easier world for major companies. This often gives unfair competitive advantage to the large companies&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.409/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the advancement of architecture and interior design&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.419/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;ways to keep the money out of the Chancellor&#8217;s grubby hands&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.427/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;has raised much less income than the last Labour government from reforms to tackle corporate tax avoidance&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.427/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Measures put in place by Labour during its 13 years in power to counter corporate tax avoidance are projected to raise ten times as much over the next four years as those introduced by the&#8230;coalition government.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.427/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;eased laws aimed at stopping companies using tax havens, which had been repeatedly tightened under Labour.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.437/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Google tax bill is for years 2005-2011, almost all under Labour&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.437/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a liability to HMRC of &#163;130 million in respect of additional taxes and interest due for prior accounting periods and the current accounting period.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.437/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the likely consequences of any decisions in the long term&#8230;the company&#8217;s business relationships with suppliers, customers and others&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.437/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the impact of the company&#8217;s operations on the community and the environment&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.444/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;That&#8217;s either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.444/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;by far the most important part of the global offshore system of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b903.447/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Google lost the argument in the court of public opinion.&#8221;</p>