Corporate Tax Evasion Vs Benefit Fraud
The Guardian are reporting how big companies are avoiding large tax bills with clever strategies.
The Guardian seem to take a dim view of corporate tax avoidance, but other sections of the press aren’t so scathing. To some, corporate tax is an ‘onerous burden’ that can stifle prosperity.
I always find it interesting to see how differently the media portray corporate tax evasion compared with benefit fraud.
Individuals who claim benefits they’re not entitled to are described as ‘fraudsters’ and ‘cheats’, but businesses who basically do the same thing (but with the benefit of expensive tax lawyers) are described as enterprising or careful ‘tax planners’.
Does the problem begin when newspapers are businesses? Can a newspaper that is a business be expected to fairly report issues that negatively portray businesses? Who owns the Daily Mail? Who owns the Sun? What are their business interests? How do they conflict with even-handed reporting of business issues?
It’s surprising that so many people buy newspapers, given their corporate ownership. Can we trust anything they report? Why do we have any faith in their ‘news’?
Could the BBC do more to report the news that businesses (newspapers) can’t?
Interesting point: how do we know that the products we buy are from ethical companies, when the holding company name is seldom on the packaging? Re the corporate taxation debate, I’m proposing a “TaxTicked” label that tax-compliant companies would be able to put on their packaging, website etc (including newspapers). Then let the market sort out whether they care about the issue enough to reward the “good” and punish the “bad”.
Hi Alistair – that’s a very interesting idea. Although I’m not sure how workable it is. Aren’t most companies that avoid tax still compliant? Because their tax avoidance schemes are legitimate and legal, even if they’re not in the spirit of the law. And how much money will we spend on the administration of such a scheme? And how will smaller companies cope with the additional administrative burden? Often schemes that set out to prove or test some kind of standard just become an expensive, complicated affair that many will invest in circumnavigating. I think the best solution to the corporate tax avoidance problem is tighter legislation that closes loopholes.