Useful discussion

KEY POINTS

• HMRC issued a briefing on multinational corporations.
• Nature of the hearing before the public accounts committee.
• The issue is one of public trust of the tax authority.
• A review of the question of tax transparency is necessary.

A couple of weeks ago I discussed in my article ‘Matter of principle’ (4 February 2016 page 8) the significance of the Google deal and in particular the danger in the encroachment of politics into the tax affairs of individual companies. Since then matters have moved on. First HMRC published an issue briefing on multinational corporations (tinyurl.com/hb5of85). Then on 11 February came the appearance of Google and HMRC before the House of Commons public accounts committee. So how do things look now?

Let’s turn first to the issue briefing. In...