What a year! Our Christmas round up

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We’ve had a busy year, with new companies accrediting, lots of parliamentary action, councils backing the Fair Tax Mark and lots of firsts! Here are our top 5 highlights from 2016 – with plenty more to come next year!

We got councils to back Fair Tax practices – Back in January, we launched the Sourced campaign joint with Christian Aid. Together, we aimed to embed fair tax into councils’ procurement practices, meaning that when they choose which companies to award contracts to, they look for businesses which can prove they’re paying their fair share (like by having the Fair Tax Mark). And it went better than we could ever have expected! More than a dozen councils have now made commitments, with more expected in 2017. Learn more here.

We won our first accountancy practice and our first building society – Financial services are under major scrutiny for their culture and practices and 2016 saw a major surge of interest in the Fair Tax Mark from them. We announced the first ever Fair Tax building society, the Ecology Building Society, and the first ever Fair Tax accountancy, Crunchers South London. Then, in December we announced our second accredited accountants, Crunchers Edinburgh, part of the same franchise and going to show that these things have a snowball effect. We expect to have several new announcements of other financial services accreditations in the new year, so watch this space!

We took fair tax to parliament – 2016 saw the Fair Tax Mark taking action in parliament, with the support of our businesses. We spoke about how businesses can be part of the solution to the APPG on Responsible Tax, and we coordinated business support for ‘country-by-country reporting’. Our businesses even had a public letter printed in the Guardian. And we were thrilled to have the vocal support of MPs and peers, with  Baroness Kennedy of Cradley raising the Fair Tax Mark in parliament and Caroline Flint MP and Meg Hilier MP both championing SSE plc’s commitment to the Mark.

We launched our new website and brochure – We love our look and always get compliments on our compelling brand, but it was time for a refresh. With the help of The Small Axe digital agency and Alice Haworth-Booth, we launched our new website which is easier for businesses and supporters to navigate and lovely to look at! And our new brochure explains exactly how and why businesses should get the Mark,  with testimonials from our great accredited businesses.

We announced lots of new companies – This year, we continued fulfilling our mission to build a Fair Tax business movement by accrediting several new businesses (and keeping all our already accredited ones with us). From Unicorn Grocery to the Cooperative Party, from Scotmid Co-operative to Revolver World, our businesses are diverse in their work and their locations, but all are united by the wish to see taxes paid fairly and transparently. We’re so thrilled to welcome each one and have several waiting in the wings to brighten up January!

It’s been a corker of a year and as we move into the festive slow-down, we’re excited for a bigger, bolder 2017.

We’ve got some seriously big plans in the works, with lots of companies waiting to announce and a great way for consumers to take tax action, so stay posted and… merry Christmas!