INVESTIGATION OF COMPANIES PAYING LITTLE OR NO CORPORATION TAX IN THE UK

Early day motion 1206, tabled 17 May 2004 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 48 members.

That this House urges the Government to investigate the activities of Alliance and Leicester, Allied Domecq, Amersham, Barclays, BOC Group, Compass Group, Dixons, GlaxoSmithKline, Hanson, Kelda Group, Lloyds TSB, Northern and Shell, Portland Enterprises, NewsCorp, Prudential, Rolls Royce, Sage Group, Severn Trent, Shell, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains and WPP, all of whom consistently pay considerably less than the 30 per cent. rate of corporation tax, thus depriving the UK Treasury of billions of pounds of tax revenues; and further suggests that each company be required to publish a full explanation of why it pays tax at less than the standard rate of corporation tax, as well as listing the tax avoidance schemes used to this end and the sources they acquired the schemes from.

Signatures by party: Labour 29, Liberal Democrat 12, Labour/Co-operative 4, Conservative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, UUP 1.