Fair Tax Week 2021 dates announced

The Fair Tax Mark is pleased to announce that Fair Tax Week 2021 will run from 5th – 13th June, incorporating Tax Justice Sunday on 6th June. The week is a UK-wide recognition of the companies and organisations that are proud to promote responsible tax conduct and pay their fair share of corporation tax.

As the UK emerges from economic lockdown and looks to rebuild public finances post-covid, the UK’s corporation tax regime will be subjected to once in a generation levels of change. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced this month that £25bn of unprecedented super-deduction capital allowance tax reliefs are to be made available to big UK businesses, but that these will be followed by a significant increase in corporation tax in 2023. Internationally, under the auspices of the OECD, the world’s major economies are wrestling with what ‘fair tax’ looks like at a global level, and how the influence of tax havens and profit-shifting tax dodgers can be curtailed. 

Fair Tax Week 2021 will probe these and other topical developments, as part of an exploration of the positive contribution corporation tax makes to society.

The week will use #CelebratingFair and be supported via the Fair Tax Mark website and social media accounts, which will also highlight digital events taking place as part of the week.

Paul Monaghan, Chief Executive, Fair Tax Mark, said: “Corporation Tax is often presented as a burden, but it shouldn’t be. Not when considered against the huge array of public services it helps fund – from education, health and social care, to flood defence, roads, policing and defence. It also plays a crucial role in holding the whole tax system together – helping to counter financial inequalities and rebalance distorted economies. Which is why it’s so important that more businesses step forward and say what they pay with pride.

“During Fair Tax Week we’ll be celebrating the organisations that are proud to pay the right amount of tax for the benefit of all, and to ensure a level playing-field for business.”

The Fair Tax Mark is an independent certification, which recognises organisations that demonstrate they are paying the right amount of corporation tax in the right place, at the right time. More than 60 businesses have now been certified. These include brands such as Timpson, Lush, and Richer Sounds, FTSE listed companies including SSE and Marshalls Plc., as well as co-operatives, family businesses and social enterprises.

Justin Thacker, Church Action for Tax Justice said: “Tax Justice Sunday is an opportunity for people of faith to come together and demand that those who have positions of power in business and government take action on those organisations that seek to avoid paying their fair share of taxation. The impact of tax avoidance can be felt all over the world, and is at the heart of growing inequality. There are many successful, profitable businesses that contribute fairly. On Tax Justice Sunday we will celebrate them and call on others to take a more responsible approach to their tax practises.”

Polling* commissioned by the Fair Tax Mark from ICM has recently found record levels of post-covid concern among the public about the use of tax avoidance practices by business in the UK. Over three-quarters of people responded said that they would rather shop with (79%) or work for (82%) a business that can prove it is paying its fair share of tax. Eight in ten people (82%) believe businesses benefiting from Government bailouts should be forced to agree terms that prohibit tax avoidance and enforce responsible tax conduct. 

* 2020 ICM Omnibus: a nationally representative omnibus survey of c.2,000 adults across GB between 15th and 17th May 2020.