Phillip Hammond blasted after £2bn tax-dodge crackdown misses target by £745m
The Chancellor was criticised yesterday after it emerged his crackdown on firms not paying their fair share of taxation will only raise a little over half the targeted amount
PHILIP Hammond was criticised yesterday after it emerged his crackdown on tax-dodging firms will miss its target by £745million.
The Chancellor introduced the so-called “Google Tax” in 2015 to clamp down on multinationals that hide their tax affairs offshore.
Figures hidden in last month’s Spring Statement reveal it has failed to bring in the extra millions predicted.
Over the past two years, £377 million will go uncollected, according to the Office of Budgetary Responsibility.
This dwarfs the extra £177 million set aside for school spending.
The Diverted Profits Tax is now expected to miss its target of £1.8billion by £745 million over the five years to 2020-21.
Shadow Treasury Minister Anneliese Dodds said: “The Chancellor needs to get a grip of tax avoidance. It’s not fair that some large multinationals are not paying their fair share yet benefitting from the billions in corporation tax giveaways Philip Hammond is continuing to handout.
“The Tories’ so called ‘Google Tax’ has done little to encourage tech giants and big multinationals like Google to truly pay their fair share.
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“Last year, The Chancellor said he was announcing a new list of tax avoidance measures, but how can we trust him to use those effectively when he can’t collect the money from the current ones?
“At a time when the Tories claim we don’t have enough money for our vital public services like our NHS, police, schools and children’s services, there is no excuse for failing to clamp dodging on tax dodging firms.
“The next Labour government will seriously clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion, and implement our Tax Transparency and Enforcement Programme to build an economy for the many, not the few.”