Scrutiny of tax settlements for large corporates

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax has released a policy paper, highlighting what it describes as ‘widespread concern over the last decade regarding settlements between HMRC and large businesses’ and noting that accountability for these settlements is constrained by both taxpayer confidentiality and HMRC’s legal relationship with the Treasury.

The paper proposes two specific policy interventions:

1.       a statutory pathway for disclosure of taxpayer information for the purposes of parliamentary scrutiny of HMRC settlements with large corporate taxpayers; and

2.       an amendment to the legislation governing HMRC’s relationship with the Treasury, prioritising HMRC’s duties in respect of revenue collection over its obligation to pursue Treasury policy priorities.