MPs have launched an inquiry into the UK’s tax system after the government was accused of allowing Google to play a miniscule amount of tax.
The House of Commons Treasury committee announced that it would examine whether a radical shakeup of corporation tax was needed, amid concern that Google has got away with an effective rate of 3%.
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the committee, said the UK’s tax law had become too elastic, allowing companies to get away legally with paying too little.“The complexity of tax law is turning what should be a straightforward principle – that everybody should pay the correct amount of tax – into a piece of elastic. For corporation tax, for instance, the problem is exacerbated by the globalisation of economic activity and any liability to tax that accompanies it”.