Concerns over tax crackdown
MPs have raised concern the Treasury may not be able to meet its predictions for raising money from closing tax loopholes.
The Treasury Select Committee believes it is unclear whether £6.8 billion would be gained following the changes.
Last year, the autumn statement from Chancellor George Osborne pledged to raise substantial funds from a crackdown on tax avoidance, evasion and fraud. However, the MPs believe there is little evidence that similar initiatives have succeeded in meeting initial projections of revenue.
Attempts to work with the Swiss government to collect tax from bank account holders based in the UK was originally expected to raise around £5.3 billion within six years. However, this estimate was revised to £1.9 billion within a year.
“Given the great uncertainty that surrounds the fiscal effects of tax avoidance measures, the reduction in the estimated yield of the UK-Swiss tax agreement should not be a great surprise,” the committee report said.
A number of high-profile companies, such as Amazon and Google, have faced strong public criticism for not paying UK tax despite having large operations in the country.
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