‘Equivalent foreign tax rules’ under the new procurement regime

The new procurement rules seek to use the purchasing power of the government to stop tax avoidance by requiring bidders for government work to self-certify that they have a clean tax record with no occasion of ‘non-compliance’.

The detailed framework of the rules has been addressed in a previous article in this journal (see ‘The new procurement rules on tax avoidance’ (Ian Hyde)). In brief there will be an occasion of non-compliance where:

• a supplier’s tax affairs have given rise to a criminal conviction for tax-related offences which is unspent or to a penalty for civil fraud or evasion; and/or
• any of its tax returns submitted...