Tuesday 30 April 2013

Oh THAT Sweetheart Tax Deal

The then head of HM Revenue & Customs categorically denied that his department done sweetheart deals with big companies so they only paid a fraction of their actual tax bill. No way, nope, never.
Then it comes out that actually, they DID do sweetheart deals with big companies, agreeing to accept £4.5 billion in just four settlements.
A leaked document sent by Dave Hartnett, the former head of tax at HM Revenue and Customs, discloses the figure although how much tax was owed by each of the four companies, Vodaphone are believed to be one of these and Vodafone and paid a reported £1.25bn instead of the £6 billion owed, before the deals were struck remains unknown so we don't know how much was waived.
I don't know why HMRC had to reach any kind of deal with anyone, why not just demand the companies pay their proper share of tax and if they refused drag them off to courts as they do if anyone-else owes it.
Now that we know there is room for negotiation we can all contact HMRC to do a deal on the tax we owe which will reduce the public coffers i agree but we can always make up for what's owed with a few more austerity cuts.
Hopefully the 4 companies and all the others who have cheated us out of tax will be named and shamed in the coming days.

No comments: