division_name: Tax Avoidance and Evasion
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c360.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes with concern the revelations contained within the Panama Papers and recognises the widespread public view that individuals and companies should pay their fair share of tax; and calls upon the Government to implement Labour&#8217;s Tax Transparency Enforcement Programme which includes: an immediate public inquiry into the revelations in the Panama Papers, HMRC being properly resourced to investigate tax avoidance and evasion, greater public sector transparency to ensure foreign companies wanting to tender for public sector contracts publicly list their beneficial owners, consultation on proposals for foreign companies wanting to own UK property to have their beneficial owners listed publicly, working with banks to provide further information over beneficial ownership for all companies and whom they work for, the swift implementation of full public country-by-country reporting with a fair turnover threshold as well as ensuring robust protection for whistle blowers in this area, ensuring stricter minimum standards of transparency of company and trust ownership for Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, consideration of the development of the Ramsey Principle by courts, implementation of an immediate review into the registry of trusts, and the strengthening and extension of the General Anti-Avoidance Rule to cover offshore abuses.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c365.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;very much a giveaway to the better off&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c367.3/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is what we wanted, this is what we have been pushing for three years&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c372.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;only to the extent of the law.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c378.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;you cannot build economic success on the back of social injustice.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-04-11">11 April</phrase> 2016; Vol. 608, c. 115.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c378.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c380.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The UK is especially well placed to show leadership here because it controls or directly influences by far the largest network of tax havens in the world. This network, encompassing the UK&#8217;s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories and centred on the City of London, is estimated to account for nearly a quarter of global financial services provided to nonresidents within a jurisdiction. Taken together, this UK entity would sit at the top of the ranking in the Tax Justice Network&#8217;s Financial Secrecy Index&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c384.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Under current legislation it is difficult to prosecute a company that assists with tax evasion&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-04-11">11 April</phrase> 2016; Vol. 608, c. 26.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c384.2/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;there is little evidence of economic crime going unpunished.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c384.2/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;is difficult because inevitably the email trail tends to dry up at middle management and evidentially it is hard to prove.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c384.2/16" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Such an approach would merely add a criminal sanction to existing obligations; it would assist in the reform of poor corporate culture which contributed to the crash; it would underpin the recovery by encouraging clean and stable markets; it would increase investor confidence, assist in more rapid prosecutions and dovetail well with deferred prosecution agreements.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c394.4/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Promoting the Cayman Islands&#8217; interests in the UK and Europe by liaising with and making representations to UK ministers, the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), Members of Parliament in the House of Commons and Members of the House of Lords.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c401.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It was utterly useless from a Treasury perspective, just the gratification of idle curiosity and filling of newspaper space.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c407.0/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;snap out of their synthetic indignation&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c407.0/14" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;stuffed full of low achievers who hate enterprise&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-04-11">11 April</phrase> 2016; Vol. 608, c. 34.]</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c409.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c409.0/11" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 266, Noes 300.</p>