BCC polling shows support for tax compliance

Polling released by the British Chambers of Commerce yesterday indicates that many businesses want more support to be tax compliant. We welcome and echo the call from the BCC for extra investment in both HMRC’s crackdown on tax avoidance and tools to enable easier compliance by business.

Numerous companies seek to do the right thing and are proud to pay their fair share of corporation tax. Like most of the public, they find it distasteful that less scrupulous competitors are trying to steal a march by not paying their due taxes.

Responsible tax planning is a matter for business big and small. Be that small local shops, or national retailers such as Timpson, Richer Sounds, AMT Coffee, Lush and the Co-op – all of whom have recently been accredited as Fair Tax Mark businesses.

It has been estimated that some £7 billion of Corporation Tax is still ‘missing’ from the UK’s public revenues each year as a consequence of profit-shifting and other tax avoidance machinations. Much more needs to be done to close the UK’s tax gap, especially when public finances are so stretched.